Angels of the Silences
by CompYES
Summary: After the raid, Hiccup decided not to search for Toothless's crash site. So when someone else happens to stumble on the indisposed dragon, both dragon and future rider are in for a surprise. A RuffnutHiccup story.
1. Prologue: Into the Woods

**Angels of the Silences**

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**Summary**: After the raid, Hiccup decided not to search for Toothless's crash site. So when someone else happens to stumble on the indisposed dragon, both dragon and future rider are in for a surprise. A RuffnutHiccup story.

**AN**: I just...really don't like Astrid. But I love the story, including Ruffnut, Toothless and Hiccup in that order.

**Spoilers**: Practically the whole _How to Train Your Dragon_ movie.

**Disclaimer**: Don't own _How to Train Your Dragon_ or the characters, ownage is to Dreamworks and Cressida Cowell.

**Pairing**: Ruffnut/Hiccup

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**Prologue: Into the Woods**

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"Nice job,_ Useless_!"

Ruffnut snickered at the slumped figure of Hiccup as Gobber dragged him off back home. Her snickers were accompanied by her twin brother Tuffnut (Jr.)'s chuckles and the loud guffaws of Snotlout. The only people not laughing at the other boy's expense were Fishlegs and Astrid. Fishlegs was bound by some loyalty to Hiccup, being his only friendly acquaintance, not to mention the large oaf was too good natured to ever do something mean to another person. Then there was Astrid, little goody two shoes Astrid, who probably deemed a little ribbing for ribbing's sake as below her. There was little Astrid ever got excited about outside of fighting dragons. Otherwise she was as grim as Stoick the Vast, leader of Berk. The girl would probably start wrinkling from her constant frowning way before it was her time to do so. The thought of an ugly wrinkly Astrid brought on another set of snickers.

The gangly girl disliked Astrid, though she always tried to ignore it. She was the only girl on their little island who was her age, so Ruffnut would often she'd find herself in the company of the other girl when she grew tired of the boys' immaturity. Jealousy in part was to blame for her bitter opinion of Astrid. Astrid was the perfect Viking child. If someone told her Odin had come down from the heavens to bless the other girl in her crib when she was a baby, Ruffnut would not doubt it for a second. Pretty with a powerful axe swing, and intelligent to boot, and she managed it all with impeccable grace and poise. That was a hard thing to beat. Especially considering Ruffnut herself lacked in all areas mentioned. She wasn't particularly beautiful, as Tuffnut was always quick to point out, her weapons handling was always second best, and she'd never willingly read a book for the sake of learning stuff.

Facts were facts. Astrid was Miss Popular and Ruffnut was just a nobody.

Actually, that wasn't completely true.

If anyone was a nobody, it was Hiccup. Even if he was the son of Stoick.

Ruffnut was at least part of the crowd. Her family was an honorable one amongst the families of Berk. Being Tuffnut's twin sister and somewhat cool saved her from most of the ridicule Hiccup was always on the receiving end of. Picking on Hiccup was probably the only activity all of the other kids on the island had in common besides the occasional. Astrid was a stick in the mud, Snotlout was a sleaze who spent hours making up pick up lines, Tuffnut secretly played the bone flute (and swore her to secrecy about his less than manly hobby), Fishlegs read the Dragon Index cover to cover every day during his free time, and Ruffnut...well.

Some things were private. Not even her twin was privy her every secret.

As the crowd that had gathered to watch Stoick tell Hiccup off began to abate, Ruffnut wandered off herself into the night. She didn't feel like going home right away. No one would be home, her father would be out at the tavern drinking with his raid buddies, and she didn't doubt for a second that Tuffnut as well as the other idiots were there as well attempting to drink like the men they thought they were. Ruffnut rolled her eyes in annoyance, knowing that every time something like this happened, their father had had to drag the skinny lout home by the scruff of his neck. Not that he put up much of a fight, since the boy was dead drunk on arrival. Tuffnut Sr. would leave his son at the door of their dwelling and depending on what kind of mood she was in, she'd either leave him their till halfway through the next day or lug him up to his own bed.

Even in the dark, she knew where she was going. Her feet had already carried her far past the outskirts of Berk. Something in her was telling her that taking this spur of the moment walk into the woods was a bad idea. Being out late, even though sunrise was just on the horizon, was highly discouraged after a dragon raid. There were sometimes straggler dragons that hung around after the raid picking things off in the woods when they couldn't grab anything in the village. Ruffnut very alone and unarmed and would be easy pickings to whatever might be lurking just beyond the bend. The thought of turning back now was smart, but seemed too much of an Astrid thing to do at the moment, so she forged on with renewed determination. She didn't even really know where she was going anymore, though she was taking special care to remember the path she was taking so she'd be able to find her way home.

It was then that something caught her eye. There was a fallen tree looking so out of place illuminated by the rays of dawn breaking through the trees. Fallen trees happened, but this one didn't look like it had gone down naturally at all. From the torturous way it was broken and bent over, it looked like it had been struck by something coming at it from its side. Only two things were massive enough to take out a tree like that. One was a misfired catapult. The other... Gulping, she felt beads of sweat begin to dot her brow. As she grew closer to the tree, the trail of debris leading away from the tree threw the first guess out. Boulders did not slash and gouge trees they hit. This walk was seriously beginning make her nervous.

The smart thing to do would've been to turn around and leave. Go tell Stoick, or her father. Let them deal with what lay just over the crest of that hill, the earth on it now disturbed by the impact of something very, very large.

It was then though, that a thought occurred to her. She didn't know why it seemed to stand out, but it did. Something Hiccup had been trying to say when no one was really paying attention to him. Hiccup said a lot of things no one listened to or believed. He was just really...weird. Skinny, clumsy, and weak, he wasn't like any other person in Berk. That was what made him such an easy target for teasing. And his outrageous lies! Killing a NightFury? Seeing it land out by this point? Was he for real?

Except right now, that claim didn't seem so ridiculous right now.

With the situation at hand, it didn't seem funny at all.

Because if there was a chance Hiccup was right, then there was a dragon, a NightFury, over there. A NightFury, the most mysterious and dangerous of dragons to ever terrorize Berk.

And it was out in the woods. With her.

And possibly alive. Injured maybe, but alive.

Which would make her quite possibly very dead.

Sucking in a shuddering breath, she thought about what to do. Running seemed like a completely reasonable-- wonderful really-- thing to be doing all things considered. But no one would ever call Ruffnut a completely reasonable girl. She was a Thorston, and Thorstons didn't run away like cowards. With shaky hands, she picked up what she considered a rather hefty, sturdy branch and started to edge at an achingly slow pace towards the hill.

There, not too far from a boulder, lay the form of a fair sized, jet-black dragon. It's features and coloring were nothing she was familiar with from past raids, letting her know that it was not something like a Nightmare or a Zippleback. That did nothing to calm her nerves. The only conclusion to be drawn from the fact she did not recognize this particular breed of dragon was that it was in fact a NightFury. At this realization, her knees chose that moment to wobble furiously then give out on her.

Green eyes opened and focused on her, pinning her to her spot.

If she made it out of this alive, she was never going to doubt Hiccup's word ever again.

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**Prologue: Into the Woods **-- End

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Next Installment

Chapter One: Hiccup


	2. Chapter One: Hiccup

**Angels of the Silences**

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**Summary:** After the raid, Hiccup decided not to search for Toothless's crash site. So when someone else happens to stumble on the indisposed dragon, both dragon and future rider are in for a surprise. A RuffnutHiccup story.

**AN**: Yay for POV shift.

**Spoilers**: Practically the whole How to Train Your Dragon movie.

**Disclaimer**: Don't own _How to Train Your Dragon_ or the characters, and anything I might steal from the books.

**Pairing**: Ruffnut/Hiccup

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**Chapter One: Hiccup**

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**

There was never a better wake up call in the morning than a slap to the face. It was efficient though a little more violent than he was accustomed to. Usually he'd be woken by either his father or Gobber. Neither his father nor Gobber had any finesse in accomplishing the deed either. His father would heft him out of his bed and out the door where as Gobber would shake him till he was conscious. Or nauseous. But slapping worked too he guessed, as he began to wake, his eyelids fluttering open at a sluggish rate. Once the room came into focus and the light stopped blotting out his vision, he drew back in shock as he took in the identity of the unlikely intruder in his room.

"What are you doing here?" Hiccup shrieked, almost instantaneously regretting opening his mouth.

Before him stood one of the people he'd least expect to show up in his house at Loki knew what hour of the morning it was. It was Ruffnut Thorston, one of the twin horrors stuck on the island of Berk to add torment his existence. She was kneeling beside his bed, arm still outstretched from when (he supposed) she had slapped him. He couldn't for the life of him hazard a guess or find reason behind why she of all people was in his room. Unaccompanied. Well, by her twin. Because everyone knew that neither twin ever went anywhere without the other. In his whole life, at least, he'd never seen them separated. But here she was, twinless in his bedroom. Instantly, his cheeks colored.

There was a girl in his room.

He'd always hoped it would be Astrid some day.

Reality was really disappointing.

"The NightFury."

"Um...what?"

"Last night. At the raid. You said you killed the NightFury," the girl said haltingly, breaking each time with a short, loud intake of air.

He stared at her uncertainly, not understanding what she meant about the NightFury. Of course he knew what she was talking about. How last night he'd been positive he'd timed his 'cannon' shot perfectly and brought the dragon down. But when he had sat down to think about it, he'd admitted that it was probably a trick played on him by his own imagination and eyes. It had been really dark after all. Maybe he was wrong about what he thought he'd seen. His reevaluation of last night's events had given pause to his plans to just disappear out the back and into the woods to search for the beast's landing spot. Eventually, he'd written the whole thing off and just went to bed, hoping he could forget just how badly he screwed up his father's defensive against the dragons..._again_. So why was Ruffnut barging into his room spouting off about the NightFury now? Was it to just tease him again for claiming it last night, like all the other nights he'd claimed to have killed a dragon?

Somehow, he felt like this wasn't just some sort of crazy house call taunting. Missing from the top of her head was her usual four-horned helmet. The belittling sneer that usually adorned the girl's face was noticeably absent. Replacing it instead was a lost, panicked look. Her eyes were bloodshot and ringed with dark circles, darting around his room constantly. One of her braids was undone, spilling over her shoulder in messy waves. A little dirt was smudged on all exposed places of her skin and there were tracks of it on her clothing. Most disturbing were the many scratches running up and down her arms; the majority of cuts were small, but there were a few with tiny blood rivulets trickling from them. The sight of the blood, no matter how little or insignificant, made him queasy.

"Are you alright?" he couldn't help but ask, his eyes drawn traveling back to the blood whenever he tried to look away.

"I'm fine," Ruffnut barked at him harshly.

"But, well, you're arms, and..." Hiccup stuttered.

She shook her head.

"That doesn't matter right now. You remember what you said about killing the NightFury?"

"Well, yeah. Of course. I did say it after all. Why?"

"You didn't kill it."

Hiccup rolled his eyes, "Rub it in, why don't you. As if hearing it from my dad wasn't enough."

"You didn't kill it..." she started again.

Cutting her off, "Yeah, I get it already, I didn't..."

"...but you did hit it."

"...kill i-ah, wait, _wha_--?" His eyes wide open, he couldn't help but hope that maybe someone was cutting him a break and giving him his chance at the NightFury and recognition.

"Whatever it was you were using, you hit the NightFury. It landed just a little off from where you said it did last night."

"Seriously. Are you just pulling my leg here? Like, your brother and Snotlout are gonna be jumping out from under my bed any minute now and you're all going to yell, 'Got you!' or something?"

Ruffnut huffed in frustration.

"No, I'm not playing a trick on you Use--Haddock. I'm being serious. Really serious. Your lucky shot hit the NightFury. I saw it in the woods."

"You saw it?" Hiccup asked excitedly.

"I did."

"What did it look like?" he was almost bouncing up and down with glee. It was unbelievable. One of his inventions had actually worked!

"It was black," she said, a little reluctantly.

That made sense. Maybe that was why no one had seen it until now. It was always dark when the dragons attacked. Trying to see something black against the night sky would be practically impossible. The only way anybody heard its approach was by high pitched whistling noise it made as it went in for the kill. Stealth class dragon, it definitely fit.

"Anything else? What size is it? Wing span? Any extra heads? Did it--"

She cut him off. "It had green eyes."

"Green eyes?" He was confused. Why were the eyes so important?

"Big green eyes..."

Hiccup was beginning to grow a little worried. Ruffnut wasn't even looking at him anymore; she was staring past his head at the wall, completely unfocused. It was as if she was looking through the wall, seeing something even farther away. Her pale face looked so much paler than it usually did, his previous concern about blood loss affecting her seeming a little more valid. She was so out of it, she was treating him civilly. Really, how often did it happen that either of the Thorstons, or anyone else, would treat him with anything other than derisive scorn? Sure, Ruffnut was being a little short with him, but the point was that this was the most the nicest she'd ever acted towards him, without any childish nicknames or rude insults thrown in. He didn't have long to keep on pondering what was wrong with her because she had grabbed him by the arm and was dragging him with her out of his room.

"Hey, wait. Where are we going?"

"To the NightFury."

"You mean it isn't dead?" Hiccup exclaimed as she continued to pull him along. They were already at the top of the stairs, forcing him maintain some semblance of balance on his feet or else he'd trip going down the steps.

"Of course not, Haddock. I already told you it wasn't dead."

"Yeah, but you said I hit it," Hiccup shot back, "Wasn't it like fatally wounded or something?

"I don't know."

"What do you mean, you don't know?"

His shout caused her to pause at the bottom of the steps and hold a threatening finger in his face.

"Be. Quiet."

So he shut up as told.

* * *

They exited the house, not once running into his father, who was the only person he was concerned about bumping into like this. His father the master of jumping to the wrong conclusion about the situations he'd find his son in. The last thing he wanted his father assuming was that he and Ruffnut were...well. Yeah. Thinking about it already was gross. There wasn't anything very feminine or attractive about Ruffnut. She was crass, and unruly, and more likely to pick her teeth and belch along with the guys than pick flowers or cook. If his father was allowed even a second to entertain the idea, they'd be having Tuffnut Thorston Sr. over for dinner, and the two fathers would be striking up an engagement for the two teenagers and discussing the dowry for the wedding. Know his father, he'd forget about the dowry if only his son could take the next step into manhood. A shiver ran down his spine at the thought.

Never. It was never going to happen. He'd sooner run away from Berk than agree to that sort of thing. Find somewhere nice and warm. Maybe where the people were just as scrawny as he was.

Besides, his heart still belonged to Astrid after all.

It wasn't long before they were out in the woods. He started feeling a little nervous, excited and antsy. After all, they were going to see the NightFury. He wondered just what was going to happen. Ruffnut had vehemently insisted that the dragon wasn't dead yet. That did cause him to worry a bit, but Ruffnut had said that it had been injured. That meant that it would be weak, and they'd be able to take it on with little resistance. Glancing at Ruffnut, though, he felt a little confused. What was she planning by bringing him with her? If it had been him who had found the dragon, he'd have killed it himself and claimed all the glory for its slaying. Or he would have at least gone to his father about it. Maybe not his father now that he thought about it. Gobber was a more likely candidate to talk to about it. At least Gobber would have humored him, instead of blowing him off like his father.

So what was Ruffnut planning?

Those questions kept bouncing about his head, though he didn't voice them. Ruffnut looked like she still didn't want him asking questions, so he continued to follow her with his arm clenched firmly in her grasp. The deeper they got into the woods, the more severe her grip in his arm got. Out of the corner of his eyes, the look on her face seemed as nervous as his was. She seemed just as scared about going to the dragon. At least, that was what he thought it was. He was torn out of his thought when he caught sight of wasted trees and gouges in the ground. This was where it landed. He wanted to further inspect the scene, but Ruffnut was giving him any time to pause or look around. In fact, her stride was picking up speed leading towards what looked like a clearing, urging him to move faster to keep up. He couldn't see very well ahead of them, there were boulders obscuring his vision. Swallowing, he realized this was it, this was the moment of truth. His free hand went to his belt where he kept a knife at all times. He didn't know what good it might do him, but he supposed it was better to go in prepared.

There it was.

Laying black as night, just as Ruffnut had described it to him. He was a little surprised that it wasn't as fierce as he thought it would be. After all the talk of the horror the NightFury was to Berk, he had expected the terror to be this large menacing thing. If he had to guess, he'd say it was no bigger than a Deadly Nadder. The projectile he'd shot at the dragon had wound itself around the beast, tying it up. It looked practically harmless that way, lying on one side with one wing wrapped protectively around itself. Its green eyes were opened and watching him and Ruffnut calmly. He didn't understand how it could be acting so nonchalant in the presence of two humans who would likely kill it. One of the few things he remembered from one of Gobber's lectures was that the most effective way to cripple a dragon was to remove its ability to fly away. This dragon must've understood what situation it was in.

As soon as they were in the presence of the dragon, Ruffnut's hold on him was relinquished. She took several steps forward, shaking off his hand when he reached out to her to hold her back. Stopping in front of the dragon, she stared at it, the picture of conflicting emotions. One hand was held out to the dragon as if in a welcoming gesture, the other clenched tightly in a fist. Her eyes had softened yet her jaw was clenched and her mouth had set itself in a hard line. All the while, the dragon's gaze had not left him, making him feel increasingly uncomfortable. Just what the heck was going on?

"I can't kill it," she said so softly, he barely heard her.

"What?"

"I can't kill it," she repeated, "I can't kill this dragon. I don't want to."

"What do you mean, you don't want to kill it?" Hiccup asked incredulously, "This is the NightFury! It's been terrorizing Berk for ages now. There's a perfectly good reason to kill it."

"I know," Ruffnut choked out, "I know! We're vikings. I'm a viking. I should gladly want to kill this dragon. It's the enemy."

"So what's stopping you?"

"Look at it Hiccup!" she yelled abruptly turning on him, startling both him and the dragon. "It's weak and defenseless. Where is the honor in killing it like this?"

A strange indignant rage swelled up in him. Where was this compassion coming from? The Ruffnut Thorston he'd grown up with was not a compassionate person. She spit on him and laughed at his faults and humiliation, kicked him when he was down. What made this any different than what she and her friends had done to him?

And then with shock he understood.

It wasn't what she had meant, but he understood in his own way. Looking back into the dragon's eyes, he realized it was no different than him. Instead of him being the victim this time, it was the dragon. For all its calm demeanor, there was underlying tension in the dragon's figure, preparing for the final blow to be dealt. It was scared. As scared and upset as Ruffnut looked right now. As scared as he'd felt last night when that Nightmare had had him cornered and just as helpless. And he understood now.

He couldn't just take the life of something that couldn't fight back. It wasn't right.

"I…"

His eyes lifted and connected with Ruffnut's. Understanding passed between them in the heavy silence. They knew now that neither would lift a hand against the bound creature in their midst. At that moment something in both of them caused a shift in their perspective of each other. Hiccup removed his hand from his belt where it had been ready to clasp his knife. The minute he did so, the tension he'd sensed in the dragon seemed to ease, if only a little. Its eyes swiveled over to Ruffnut, a glint of curiosity in them.

"What happens now?" he asked her, "We can't kill it."

"I don't know," Ruffnut said, unclenching her fist. She knelt down beside the dragon and reached out to it. It growled in response. In a quiet, even voice she spoke, "I don't want to hurt you."

The dragon didn't look completely convinced, and continued staring up at her warily.

"Why is it that you came to me with this of all people?" Hiccup finally asked her.

"I just…thought that out of anyone, you'd understand."

Hiccup snorted.

"What about your brother?" What little mirth he'd expressed at her admission tapered off at the angry glare she was shooting him.

"He wouldn't get it."

"But he's your twin, right?" Hiccup asked dumbly.

If anything, her glare only got frostier.

"Just," she growled, "because we're twins, doesn't mean that we're the same." She looked back at the NightFury. "Besides, if I'd shown Tuffnut this, he would've swung first, asked questions later."

"Why didn't you?"

"What is this?" Ruffnut demanded, "What's all the questions for?"

"I just…I don't get why you didn't swing either."

"Well, why didn't you?" she retorted snottily.

"I don't know…" Hiccup answered.

Looking over her shoulder with a triumphant grin, she said, "Well neither did I. I mean, at first I was a little scared, but when I got over that, I realized that he couldn't hurt me."

She took a moment to reach out to the dragon again. It rebuffed her attempts again with a hiss.

"He?"

"Yeah," she replied, glancing at the dragon, "You're a boy right?"

They both took the dragon's response, an eye roll accompanied by an awkward (due to the ropes) nod, as a yes.

"So, when I realized he couldn't hurt me, well, at first I was relieved. Cause I don't think this is where I'd want to die, out in the middle of the forest where I wouldn't be found for days. That would suck." She chuckled at her own comment, and Hiccup couldn't help a couple laughs to come join her chuckles.

"I guess it would."

"I didn't have any weapons on me aside from a stick, so I couldn't have killed him even if I'd wanted to. I ran back to the village, not really knowing what to do. I didn't want to kill it, but, you know how things are. What vikings are supposed to do."

"Kill dragons."

The dragon momentarily stiffened at Hiccup's response, causing Hiccup to wince. Of course the dragon would be sensitive to talk about killing his kind. How insensitive of him.

"I honestly thought about going straight to Stoick or my dad about it. You know, so I wouldn't have to take care of it myself. But it all would've ended the same way. Someone would come out here and kill him if I told either of them."

Ruffnut finally gave up trying to coax the dragon into allowing her to touch it. It obviously was not comfortable with the idea of her touching it while it was tied up.

"So you came to me."

"Yeah."

"Why did you think I'd understand?"

"You're weird, you know."

As if that was an answer.

"Yeah, so what?" he asked her, disgruntled at what he thought to be an insult.

"You're weird. Everyone else, they'd jump at the chance to kill a dragon, no questions asked, you know, because they really wanted to. But you think about things. You can't fight but you think about how to get around it, what you can do instead. You would've thought about killing it first, instead of just doing it. If it was me, and I'd been armed, may just have killed him before thinking about it. Do you get it?"

"Sort of." He just didn't know if it was a good thing or not.

"And also, if you tried telling anyone else, they wouldn't believe you."

"Gee, that's nice," he muttered sarcastically.

"Anyway, we've gotta do something now," she said, standing and dusting herself off.

The NightFury, which had been a silent third party to their conversation looked torn between being interested in what they were saying and being bored while they talked. Now that Ruffnut was standing and talking about "doing something," it seemed a little more invested in what was going on.

"What is it?"

"We've gotta set him free."

He gaped at her.

"You're kidding, right?"

She stared back at him, not blinking.

"O mighty Thor, you're not, are you?"

The nefarious grin he was accustomed to seeing when she was putting together a prank with her twin spread across her face.

"Nope."

"You do realize that once it's free, he will be free to kill us?"

"Yeah, so?"

"_Sooo_ he could kill us. I'm all for not killing him, but, can't we just, I don't know, let him sort this all out?"

Ruffnut looked at him disbelievingly.

"Are you retarded? '_Let him sort this all out_?' He's tied up for Odin's sake! How is he going to sort himself out?"

"Okay, fine, so he can't free himself. There's still no proof he won't kill us once he's free," he argued back at her.

Addressing the dragon, she asked, "If we free you, could you not kill us?"

"You're kidding me," Hiccup said, mostly to himself.

The dragon nodded solemnly.

"See, we have his word he won't."

"This is ridiculous."

"Let's just free him already. Hand me your knife."

She held her hand out expectantly to him.

"You know you're insane, right?"

"If you insist."

Sighing, he slowly withdrew his knife from where it was on his belt, careful not to make any quick moves and spook the dragon. He placed it in Ruffnut's hand, hoping he hadn't just made a huge mistake. Ruffnut took the knife and began cutting away at the ropes holding the dragon. He watched in anticipation as they began to go slack around his scaly body. The wait wasn't long; a second later the ropes were loose enough the dragon shot up and shook them off. Ruffnut had been in the middle of cutting more rope and the sudden movement had cause her to fall back into Hiccup and the knife to go flying out of her hand. Free, the dragon stalked toward them looking every bit the predator it was. Ruffnut leaned away from it, into Hiccup, who was too scared to object or get embarrassed about it.

And then the NightFury let loose a roar.

Both teens cringed, Ruffnut turning even further into Hiccup, and Hiccup clutching her arm like a lifeline. As quickly as it happened, it was done. The clearing was once again silent except for the beating of wings in the distance. They watched as the dragon tried to fly away, though it seemed as if it wasn't getting very far. Once it was out of sight, they both breathed a sigh of relief.

Before pushing away from one another.

"Well…"

"Well…"

"I guess I told you so," Ruffnut crowed triumphantly.

"About what?"

"That he wouldn't kill us."

"Whatever," Hiccup said back to her, although he was smiling along with her.

"We'll see him again."

"You think so?" he asked.

"Defnitely. So let's head back home now," she said, standing up.

Without stopping to see if he was following her, the girl made her way out of the clearing in the direction of Berk. Sighing again, he got up and started trudging after her. He wondered if this secret encounter made them friends now.

"Hey, there's my helmet!"

If so, he guessed things would be a little more interesting now.

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**Chapter One: Hiccup** – End

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Next Installment

Chapter Two: Dragon Care


	3. Chapter Two: Friendship

**AN**: Thanks for giving me such positive feedback guys. I went to see _HTTYD_ one more time just so that I could refresh myself on the story. Just as a warning, this chapter is going to be a little choppy, since I'm trying to fit a lot of scene transitions into it at once. Also, I just realized that I might be prone to some Astrid bashing. I want to keep my writing as bias free as possible, so as a favor, please watch me on that. So with out any further interruptions, I give you the next chapter!

**Disclaimer: **Just one more time to be safe, I don't own _How to Train Your Dragon_.

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**Chapter Two: Friendship**

* * *

When Hiccup showed up to dragon training the next day, Ruffnut was surprised but was secretly pleased to see him. No one had expected the boy to show up to dragon training, considering how prone he was to actually cause more harm to himself and others than the dragons did. And that was when he was trying to help. They all figured Stoick had given him up as a lost cause and would just let him pursue a non-combative role in the village, like being a bread making viking or something like that. Feeding the village was productive after all. Just how badly could he screw something like that up? Okay, no one really wanted to think through the answer to that one. Still, Hiccup in dragon training was something the other kids looked at as another opportunity to make fun of him.

Except that Ruffnut didn't see it that way at all. In the face of everything that had happened yesterday, she didn't think she'd be able to treat Hiccup the same way as if nothing had changed. Everything had changed. Hiccup wasn't just a loser anymore. He'd shot a Night Fury out of the sky using one of his wacky inventions and no one but her knew. Then he'd sworn an oath to her to keep what happened to the dragon a secret from his father and everyone else, even at the cost of being hailed a hero by the village for his accomplishment. She held a newfound respect for the boy everyone else looked down on. Sure, he was too weak to heft an ax and clumsier than a disoriented gronkle, but he'd more than proved to her that some things could be more important than just brute viking strength. That overcoming such weaknesses was a strength in itself.

The minute she heard Tuffnut and Snotlout trash-talking Hiccup, she reached over slapped both boys upside the head. This earned her startled yet grateful look from Hiccup and am indignant glare from her brother. Snotlout could care less, in fact, she was sure he was inwardly high five-ing himself over the fact a girl had touched him.

What a creep.

Seeing how most everyone was distracted by Gobber's lecturing, she took the chance to sidle up beside Hiccup and tap him on the shoulder. He jumped a little but calmed immediately when she gave him a look that would get across the fact she did not want the others to notice. Nodding, he leaned in to listen to what she had to say.

"Do you want to go looking for the big guy once dragon training's over?" At his blank look, she gave a frustrated sigh and explained. "You know, the," she paused to glance about before continuing in a whisper, "_dragon_."

"Oh, um, yeah."

They didn't really have anymore time to discuss their plans further because while they were talking, Gobber was unleashing a gronkle on the unprepared teens. Hiccup dove left while Ruffnut drove right, just as the gronkle barreled directly through the area where the two of them had been standing. Ruffnut was quick to move to Tuffnut's side, as a force of habit, while Hiccup found the most convenient hiding spot behind the mounted wall of weapons set up out of the way. To her displeasure, she was one of the first to be disqualified when Tuffnut trying to pick a fight with her distracted her. It wasn't the first time that her idiot brother had screwed something up. Huffy, she slunk out of the arena with Tuffnut, and soon, Fishlegs joined them. The rest of the gronkle fight went by as predictably as possible.

There were only three people left after Ruffnut, Tuffnut and Fishlegs struck out. Astrid was still in, of course, because she was an expert at this. Snotlout, the romantic moron he was, was still in, spending most of his time attempting to get a date out of the other girl with no success whatsoever. Ruffnut supposed that if the boy actually focused on the dragons instead of girls, he'd make a fine dragon slayer. Possibly even rival Astrid. But getting Snotlout to pay attention to anything over the company of a girl was impossible. She pitied Astrid for being the primary target of his attentions. Finally, there was Hiccup, who was still in because it was easier for him to dodge the dragon, who seemed much more interested in chasing the others. He was also smart enough to not get distracted arguing, babbling off statistics, or spouting off about his (non-existent) triumphs.

Snotlout was hit when he was attempting to look brave and competent in front Astrid. And failing beautifully at it. Hiccup seemed to be doing well until he got cocky and stopped to make small talk with Astrid. Astrid was already on the move by the time the gronkle focused its attention on the two of them. Ruffnut only had a second to gasp as a fireball hurtled towards Hiccup. Thankfully, he pulled his shield in time to block the blow. Unfortunately, it sent the shield flying off his arm and rolling away in another direction. Frantically, he took his eyes off the dragon as he chased after his shield. Nerve-wracked, she watched as the gronkle swooped down on the boy and had him pressed up against the arena wall. For a second she hoped that maybe what happened yesterday with the Night Fury might not have been a fluke and maybe this dragon wouldn't harm Hiccup.

Her hopes were dashed when she watched the beast prepare to shoot off its final shot point blank into Hiccup's head. The only thing that stopped it from murdering her new acquaintance (friend?) was Gobber's last minute intervention, pulling the two away from each other.

"A dragons always, always goes in for the kill."

That's what Gobber had said in the closing of the lesson. Dragon's always kill. Her eyes had caught Hiccups when he'd said that and they'd shared conflicted look. Both of them knew that that statement wasn't completely true. The proof was in yesterday's encounter with the Night Fury. They'd stared right down the roaring maw of the most fearsome dragon only to come out completely unscathed. So why hadn't he? Why hadn't he just blasted them into oblivion? Torn them to shreds limb by limb? Why hadn't they become the newest victims of dragon attacks?

Both she and her brother had listened without questioning to the creed that the most important thing to life was that the dragons must be killed in order for their fellow vikings to survive. You trained, you killed, and you didn't hesitate, because if you did you were dead. Nothing else mattered. She remembered as a child the first time she had seen a dragon after wandering into the woods alone. It had been a Terrible Terror. At the time it just seemed like a harmless reptile. It hadn't even tried to hurt her, just observed her curiously. The only reason it had grown violent was when her mother had come out to find her and had seen the dragon. Her mother had her watch as her father came out to kill it himself. That night, as she went to bed, her mother told her and her brother that dragons were a menace and not to be taken lightly no matter what.

Were her parents right? Were dragons really just mindless killers?

* * *

"I wonder if it's just a Night Fury thing," Hiccup said thoughtfully as they quietly watched the dragon below them.

Neither of them had had much trouble slipping out of the village unnoticed. Both of their parents had departed that morning for the siege on the dragon's nest. Ruffnut thought for a while that Tuffnut would try to drag her off to indulge in some shenanigans Snotlout had thought up, but she'd been pleased to find out that he wasn't in the mood to much of anything, sulking at home and treating the burns he'd gotten from dragon training. So she made sure to let him know she was heading out for a while and she'd see him later that night at dinner. Meeting up with Hiccup at his house, they'd set out to find the dragon. It had taken them some time to search him out since he wasn't where they'd last seen him. Hiccup had managed to figure out where he had gone based on a map he carried depicting their island. Ruffnut wondered at his resourcefulness, knowing she'd never have thought to have brought a map or known how to track the dragon down.

Now they were sitting up at the mouth of a cave that led to a very out of the way gorge. At the bottom was a little lake as well as the Night Fury, making frustrated attempts to get up the walls.

"I don't know, maybe," she responded absent-mindedly, eyes on the dragon as he tried using his claws to climb the wall. It was working for a while until he lost his grip and tumbled back to the ground. Beside her, Hiccup was sketching out the dragon using a charcoal stick in a notebook.

"Why isn't it just flying out of here?" A puzzled frown formed on the boy's face.

"Maybe it can't," she said, stifling a laugh at the dragon who looked incredibly disgruntled at his constant failures, in both flying and trying to catch food. Turning away, she leaned in close on Hiccup's side to get a better look at his drawings, "Hey, you're really good at that."

"Ah, thanks," Hiccup said with a blush, scratching the back of his head with the hand holding the charcoal stick.

As if in slow motion, she watched as the charcoal stick tumbled out of that hand, over the side of the ridge and down to the floor below. It made a noticeable sound as it hit the ground. By this point, Hiccup had noticed his screw up and watched just as anxiously as she was for the dragon's response. Unfortunately, he had heard the sound the object had made when it had impacted, and immediately sought out the cause of the noise. Like their last run in with the Night Fury, they were caught in a stare off. He eyed them with the same cautious curiosity he had the last time, not moving from his crouched position beside the water. Both parties waited for the other to do something.

And waited.

* * *

"Okay, so I think we've established that Gobber's wrong and there's at least one dragon that won't kill us," Hiccup said as the two of them were heading back to village.

"Or maybe he won't kill us cause we're just that awesome?" Ruffnut suggested. She pretended she didn't see Hiccup roll his eyes at her.

"So how do you want to do this?" He asked, looking a little forlornly off at the sun setting in the distance.

"Do what?"

"Well, you know, the dinner thing. Cause everyone will be eating together. And well, you probably don't want to be seen with me so...Do you want to head in first and I'll follow after or maybe I go in first and you'll head in after and--what?"

Ruffnut sighed.

"You know what I want?"

"What?"

"For you to stop acting like such a girl and get a move on already," she barked, cuffing him on the shoulder as she breezed past, "And you better be standing right next to me when we go in. Got it?"

"Y-Yeah."

So the two entered the meeting hall together. Everyone else was already there and Gobber had already started a discussion recapping what he or she had done during dragon training that day. The minute Hiccup and Ruffnut came in, all talked ceased as the others looked to see who had just arrived. Astrid spared them a quick look then turned away deciding they weren't worth the time. Fishlegs appeared a little confused by why they were coming in so late before going back to his food. The only people who seemed really bothered by their entrance were Gobber, Snotlout and Tuffnut. Gobber was upset simply because they'd interrupted his lecture. Snotlout was glaring at Hiccup for Odin knew what while Tuffnut was giving her the evil eye as well. Scoffing, she pushed Hiccup towards the table at the far end as the others slowly returned to talking about class. They were currently going over what everyone had done wrong while facing off against the gronkle. She paid little mind to what was being said, just piling food onto her plate while Hiccup dumbly copied her actions.

The two continued to eat in silence, mostly ignored by the rest of the class, until Gobber called an end to their discussion, placing a book down on the table. Hiccup perked up when he realized that it was dragon manual. Ruffnut on the other hand, groaned at Gobber's suggestion to take a look at it. Really? He wanted them to read? On purpose? Ruffnut could count on one hand the amount of books she'd ever read, and none of them were for the purpose of furthering her knowledge. The mention of reviewing the book had pretty much driven off the others. Snotlout and Tuffnut were about as disgusted with the prospect of reading as she was. Astrid and Fishlegs had already read the dragon manual and didn't feel the need to read it again. That pretty much left just her and Hiccup alone with the dragon manual and the slowly dying fire.

"So, you want to share?" Hiccup asked her, breaking her out of the food coma she'd put herself in earlier.

"You mean you actually want to read it?" she asked him incredulously, "Wait, don't answer that. Of course you do, because of the big guy. If I didn't know better, I'd say you were going down the path of nerd like good 'ole Fishlegs."

"So is that a yes?" Hiccup asked, trying to get a look at her face, which was currently making friends with the table.

"That's a no," she answered, causing his shoulders to slump a little dejectedly. Then, muttering under her breath, "But I wouldn't mind if you read aloud."

"Oh," he said, "Okay."

They stayed up late into the night, Hiccup reading and Ruffnut lightening up the morbid mood of the book by cracking jokes about the dragons.

* * *

It was their second day of dragon training. If the gronkle yesterday had been bad, the Deadly Nadder was worse. It was violent, fast and could launch very sharp projectiles at them with insane speed and accuracy. She found herself stuck with her brother again, and by the angry shouts coming from the other side of the maze, Hiccup had found himself stuck with Miss I-Demand-Perfection and the creep. From what she'd remembered from the info Hiccup had read to her last night on the Deadly Nadder, it had a blind spot down its snout where it couldn't see past its horn. For a while, she and Tuffnut had managed to hide successfully in the thing's blind spot, She'd been ready to tuck and roll and attack on its underside when Tuffnut decided to attack it from its front. He swung his ax at the horn only to have it bounce off. Enraged, the Nadder charged the two of them completely interrupting any plans Ruffnut had of trying to do something useful.

Eventually they shook off the Nadder, who found Fishlegs a better target for a bit until Hiccup got clumsy and tripped right into its line of sight. Ever the hero, Astrid distracted the Nadder, angering it to the point it was crashing through the maze wall like a drunk in its furious pursuit, knocking down the walls of the maze as it went. As she and Tuffnut scrambled to find a way out of the collapsing maze, Hiccup had yet another clumsy moment, tripping the moment Astrid went flying in his direction. The situation was made worse when after she'd landed directly on top of him, the girl warrior's ax was lodged firmly into Hiccup's shield, which was of course secured tightly to his arm. No matter how hard Astrid tugged, the ax refused to separate from the shield while the shield refused to separate from Hiccups abused arm.

"Ooh, love on the battlefield!" Tuffnut jeered from where the two of them were standing, watching the proceedings.

Like the last couple of days, Ruffnut didn't join her brother in their old favorite pastime. Even if it was light teasing, she didn't feel into it.

With one final heave, Astrid managed to yank the conjoined ax and shield off of Hiccup just in time to strike the Nadder. Swinging it around, she caught the approaching dragon right on the side of its snout, the force of the swing hitting the dragon causing Hiccup's shield to shatter into a million pieces of broken wood. Hurt and significantly cowed, the dragon whimpered and skulked away from the scary girl with the ax. Gobber chose that moment to dismiss class till the night lecture at sunset. The minute he was out of sight, Astrid turned in on Hiccup and tore him a new one for his constant screw-ups in class. Most of what the girl said went in one of Ruffnut's ears and out the other. It wasn't as if she hadn't heard this spiel a million times from her own parents. A pint sized girl warrior was not going to make her change her now indifferent ways. If she wanted to fight dragons she'd fight them (and she really didn't want to). But not because self-righteous adults or Astrid told her it was their "sacred duty" or anything.

The other girl stomped off, still angry at Hiccup, and all the boys except for Hiccup followed after her. Hiccup remained where he was, lying on the ground where Astrid had fallen on him. He looked defeated where he lay. Like whatever Astrid had said had actually mattered to him. Setting her jaw, Ruffnut walked over to the dejected boy and kicked him in the side.

"OW! Kick a guy when he's down, why don't you! What, in the name of Odin's missing eyeball, was that for?" Hiccup exclaimed, sitting up while gingerly holding his side.

"What, you want me to kiss your boo-boo and make it all better?" Ruffnut cooed condescendingly at him.

His face went red with anger and embarrassment.

"Considering you're the one who gave me it, I'd rather you didn't!"

"Oh, get over yourself Haddock," she said, finally getting tired of messing with him, "Whatever Astrid said, forget it already. She's hyping the whole 'our parent's war' thing. So you're not a warrior? Big deal. It's not like our village isn't going to survive without another warrior, especially one as clumsy as you." He let out a squawk of protest. "And do you really think you could go through with killing a dragon anyway? After what happened in the woods, I sure as spit couldn't."

"So what about you? If you won't fight dragons, what would you do?" he asked.

"I don't know. But it would only be something that I want to do. No one is going to make me do something that I don't want to do. If they try, they're going to have a problem on their hands," she pronounced, proudly gesturing to herself with her thumb, "Now come on, let's go visit our dragon."

"What makes it our dragon?" Hiccup let out a smile of his own. "I mean, if anything, isn't it mine?"

Ruffnut narrowed her eyes at him.

"How so?"

"I was the one who caught him after all. So I claim ownership."

"Well, if that's how you're gonna play," Ruffnut growled, "Then I should get ownership. I found him after you shot him. Finder's keepers. So there."

"You know, it's not fair trying to claim ownership. The only fair way we can settle this is by letting him choose," Hiccup suggested.

"You're on. 'Cause of course he's going pick me."

"Why?"

"Cause he likes me more."

The smile that spread on Hiccup's face unsettled her.

"We'll see."

* * *

"NO FAIR!" Ruffnut cried from where she was sitting pouting on a rock.

Hiccup had won their bet. The cheater had baited the dragon—whom he'd dubbed Toothless—with a food bribe in the form of a fish. Now he was off coaxing the Night Fury into letting him pet him. Ruffnut watched green with envy as the dragon crept closer to the boy, who was dazzling Toothless with his drawing skills. Show off. She'd been sure she'd win. She figured Toothless would remember that it was her that freed him and he'd make friends with her instead. Hiccup, being the smarty-pants he was, remembered that the dragon had been starving due to his difficulty catching food and had used his hunger as an advantage. If it weren't for the fact that it had lost her first dibs on the dragon, she would have applauded his devious ingenuity. As it was, she was ticked off by it and glaring at him. Whenever he shot her that cheeky "haha, I won" smile, she'd retort by sticking her tongue out at him.

She was broken out of her internal cursing when she noticed Toothless doing something weird with a tree branch. Hiccup looked as bewildered as she felt watching the dragon tromp around, dragging the large tree branch across the ground, leaving long lines in the dirt. Suddenly, she realized just what he was doing and moved so she could get a better view of what Toothless was drawing. It took some time to puzzle it out, at first it just looked like an enormous squiggle to her. But with a lot of squinting and guesswork on what it was, she realized it was Hiccup that the dragon had drawn out. For having to do it with a tree branch clutched in his mouth, it wasn't that bad of a picture. There was something charming about Hiccup's bulbous nose.

"I think he's more talented than you are, Haddock," Ruffnut commented with a laugh, as Hiccup tried to get outside of the middle of the drawing so he could get a better look at it.

Her laughter only increased when the dragon kept on growling at the boy for stepping on his artwork. Of course the Night Fury didn't want his handiwork being defiled. Hiccup started backing out of the mass of lines, taking care to not step on any. There was a genuinely touched look on his face as he looked at the drawing the dragon had made for him. He was so engrossed in taking it in, he didn't notice the dragon sneaking up on him until he stopped, feeling the breath of the large reptile on his shoulder. Turning to face him, he slowly put a hand out to the dragon to touch him. Toothless looked almost as if he'd accept it before shying away from the hand, shaking his huge head. Undeterred, Hiccup looked away before holding his hand back out to the dragon.

The girl watched with amazement as the dragon finally relented and lent into Hiccups hand.

As soon as it happened, it was over. The Toothless ambled away from the two dazed teens.

"That was..." Hiccup breathed.

"Cool!" Ruffnut yelled, startling Hiccup out of his state.

"It was."

"Okay, even if you won today, I'm gonna get him to like me too!" she announced, putting her hands on her hips, "By the time I'm through, I bet he'll let me rub his tummy!"

"Yeah right," Hiccup muttered under his breath, though his expression was amused, "You wanna bet?"

"You're on!"

* * *

**Chapter Two: Frienship** - End

* * *

Next Installment

Chapter Three: A Helping Hand


	4. Chapter Three: A Helping Hand

**Chapter Three: A Helping Hand**

* * *

They kept Toothless company until the sun began its descent towards the horizon. Hiccup didn't really know how she'd managed it, but Ruffnut had gotten the dragon into a charitable enough mood to allow them sit with their backs reclined against his side while he dozed. As Toothless slept, they had talked about dragon training, and Berk, and whatever came to mind to keep the conversation interesting. Lethargic, from their prolonged period of relaxation, they reluctantly pulled themselves to their feet when he pointed out that evening class was going to begin soon. The dragon reacted to their departure with drowsy indifference, until Hiccup promised to bring more food the next day for him. Both teens shared a laugh at the dragon's more enthusiastic parting yip.

"I wonder if we're going to make him fat by feeding him?" Ruffnut wondered aloud as she idly swatted at branches of trees they passed.

"Well, he could exercise or something right?"

"Doing what?" she quipped, "Failing at scaling the walls? Jogging around the lake? There's not much he can do."

"He could...well...He could fly! Dragons like to fly."

"Didn't our visit kind of show that he couldn't fly?"

"Yeah..." he consented.

It had slipped his mind in the middle of their bantering. He'd noticed how Toothless couldn't get out of the gorge, every time trying to gain some altitude and hoist himself out. Unfortunately, each time Toothless tried, he plummeted back to the grass where he'd lifted off from. What Hiccup couldn't figure out was why couldn't the Night Fury fly itself out? Night Furies were the dragon species best at flying the vikings of Berk had come up against thus far. They flew so swiftly in the darkness, only the ruined catapults they left behind confirmed that they had shown up even if they were never seen. If Toothless was the greatest flyer of all the dragons, why was he having such difficulty getting himself out of a measly gorge? Hiccup was confused.

The problem proved to be a stubborn one in the way it nagged at him, refusing to let him discard it. As he and Ruffnut continued home in silence, he kept pondering what was wrong with Toothless. Sure, as a viking there were some ethical issues with actually wanting to help make a dangerous dragon more capable of attacking his own village, but he was intrigued. Call it the repressed inventor in him who jumped at the opportunity of making something useful. It had always been weapons that had never made it past prototype after how disastrous they turned out during their mid-battle experimental runs. This time, there was probably going to be less hazard in creating some sort of apparatus to enable flight. As long as it didn't involve explosions or sharp pointy things, he'd say it would be perfectly safe to try out. But he kept coming back to the part where he needed to know precisely what was wrong with Toothless.

His preoccupation was wearing thin on Ruffnut. Upon arrival at class, she took to spitefully ignoring him in favor of conversing with her brother and heartily tearing into her piece of chicken. Hiccup merely picked at the fish he had chosen for himself, in a slump over what he was going to do about Toothless's problem. He was so engrossed in his thoughts, he almost didn't catch the tail end of Gobber's words to Snotlout after the boy started making pledges of avenging Gobber's missing arm and leg.

"It's not the arms and legs yeh want to go after! It's the wings and tail. Without them, a dragon can't fly. A downed dragon is a dead dragon."

Everything fell into place just like that. The answer to what was wrong with Toothless. When he'd been sketching the dragon earlier that day, he'd taken note of the missing fin on the dragon's tail. It was a little mind-boggling to realize how much one missing fin threw off Toothless's ability to fly. Hiccup's mind spun at how simple a solution it was to the problem. If the fin was what was keeping the dragon from flying, than the only thing to do to fix it was to replace the fin. Not wanting to draw any attention, even Ruffnut's, to his departure, Hiccup quietly slipped away from the group and the fire into the village that lay swathed in darkness.

* * *

His house was empty. He'd come in and had expected to be stopped at the door by his father so that he could be talked at about the glories of dragon hunting. The silence was welcomed, if a little saddening. He was glad for the reprieve from his father's never-ending slew of stories of his younger days, but it was times like this when he remembered that it hadn't always just been him and his father. His mother had been there too, and at one time or another, if one parent was gone, at least the other was at home spending time with him. Even though his mother had quite the similar character his father did, she was a softer, sweeter person to be around. Nowadays, he and his father just danced around one another, not knowing how to make conversation that didn't totally bore the other party. Hiccup's inability to be a fully-functioning member of their viking society only exacerbated the awkwardness in all of their interactions.

For a minute, he allowed himself to soak in the feeling of subdued peace before becoming a flurry of excited movement. Flying up the stairs, he set about picking up all of his sketch work and notes that lay scattered on his makeshift desk. Once all of the papers, unhelpful fly-aways and rumpled scraps alike, were corralled into his arms, he was down the stairs again, running so haphazardly it was a wonder he didn't pitch forward down the steps or tumble over the side where there would've been no banister to catch him. Why his father obviously didn't believe in such precautions while living under the same roof as a perpetually clumsy force of chaos was something Hiccup would never understand.

He left his house with a little more care than he had while running around his own home. Though it was dark, there would be other vikings milling about the village, mostly on patrol for dragons that would come at night. Hiccup didn't want to run the risk of bumping into one of them. Most adults in the village knew better than to let him wander by himself in the dark. If he were to be caught he'd be dragged by the collar back home where he'd get no work done. He didn't want to let what little time he had left before tomorrow's visit with the dragon slip away from him tonight. Tip-toeing past the sheep herd that observed him with lazy gazes, he breathed a a sigh of relief when he had reached the door of Gobber's forge. Just as he was about to let himself in, he heard a slight noise behind him before a hand laid itself on his shoulders. Choking back what he believed would have been a high-pitched scream, he spun to face his ambusher.

"What are yeh doing out here Hiccup?"

"Oh! Uh-Gobber, hey. Um...nothing?"

Oh, that was convincing.

Gobber's skeptical look confirmed that not only did the peg-legged viking did not believe him, but was about to commence dragging him back home if he didn't make with properly explaining himself immediately.

So how did one go about explaining to a fellow viking that they intended to return a Night Fury's flying ability back to one-hundred percent viking terrorizing capability? Preferably in the sense that he would not only be believed but would also not be thought crazy (crazier) or locked in a basement for treason or stoned to death? Maybe he shouldn't say anything at all. Or lie. Lying actually didn't sound that bad. There was a chance it would work too. Just as he was about to claim that he had some weapons he needed to repair in the forge, he noticed Ruffnut and her twin not too far off heading to their own home. His eyes caught hers for a second, hers managing to communicate a little bit of her curiosity at what he was doing, before she was dragged out of sight by Tuffnut. Gobber snapping in front of his face reminded him to stop staring at the empty space and start lying.

"You see, there were these weapons, and..."

Gobber had grudgingly allowed Hiccup to use the forge, though he'd been pinned with a warning stare promising punishment if the blacksmith found his house going up in flames during the middle of the night. The minute the man was out of sight, Hiccup was spreading all of his assorted papers across his work table, trying to figure out just where to begin with his crazy new contraption. Sketching. Sketching was good. That would at least give him a good visual of what he was trying to accomplish. Lighting all of the lanterns in the forge, he got to work on sketching both small drawings and life-size versions of what he intended to build. He regretted that he had not taken opportunity of Toothless's relaxed state earlier to pay more attention to his form. Because of that, all Hiccup had to work from was what he estimated the size of the dragon was and then tried to work that in proportion with how big the fin was in his sketches from earlier in the day.

Sighing in frustration, he pushed his work away from him for a second, knocking his fist lightly against his forehead. He was going into this project, not exactly blind, but without the full picture. At least he could make up the details as he went with weapons. With this, he was making something that would be specifically made for something, someone, else. Not for the first time this night was he feeling that maybe this whole idea from the get go was him biting off more than he could chew. With another sigh he returned to his sketches, each becoming more detailed than the last as soon as he had the design of the contraption figured out. With the spark of inspiration finally doggedly at work, it wouldn't be long before he had the plans finalized, pushed away from the bench and fired up the forge to make them reality.

* * *

His face hurt.

Not the stinging sensation he felt if he'd been slapped or smacked it into something on accident. There was just this uncomfortable something digging into his left cheek and eyebrow ridge, and even in the lingering haze of sleep, he was too aware and close to consciousness to ignore the fact that it hurt and he wanted it to stop hurting already. His limbs reluctantly moved to aid him in his attempt to push himself up and away from whatever it was - one of the chisel tools meant for finer detail - that he had fallen asleep with his face on. Now that he was starting to gain full brain functionality, he realized that he hadn't gone to sleep, more like passed out on an anvil that had been covered in tools. A hammer was still cradled in his arms from when he'd apparently been cuddling it in his sleep. Gingerly, Hiccup set it down on the anvil and stepped away from that so he could take in the mess that was the forge.

All night he'd been at his "new invention". It was hard to even judge how long he'd spent on the anvil, though it had to have been a considerable time, he winced, based on the considerable indents of the chisel into his face. Well, he thought with a glance and the work desk, at least all the late work had yielded some results. His invention was actually complete. He'd need to test drive it to see if it worked, but he'd actually done it. A smile tugged at his lips thinking about the accomplishment.

"Haddock!"

The yell was coming from where Gobber's house abutted the forge. With a start, he realized who it was.

"Around the back!" he shouted in response, desperately hoping that maybe Gobber hadn't heard or woken up, or noticed in general.

He swung around to greet the person approaching. The forge's double doors were thrown in, allowing a wave of light pour into the dimly lit space. Hiccup was temporarily blinded by it, unable to see clearly as a blow was landed on his shoulder. Yelping in pain and surprise, he tried to shuffle away from his assailant whilst blinking the spots out of his eyes.

"Do you really have to be this abusive?" he cried, holding his shoulder.

"Of course, of course!" Ruffnut replied with a cackle, "You'll get soft if I don't rough you up every now and then!"

Hiccup pouted, though he turned away so she wouldn't see it.

"Yeah right, you just like picking on the weak and unsuspecting."

"Don't sulk, man! I'm just teasing you! Friend's privilege and all," the girl said cajolingly, casually slipping an arm around his shoulder.

Whatever he'd intended to say died in his mouth the minute she said the word friend. He didn't care if the way he was feeling was overly sentimental or sappy just because one word that may have just been a slip of the tongue, because that one word gave him such happiness, he couldn't describe it. No one liked him. No one was really his friend. They maybe tolerated him if they didn't outright despise him, but never really liked him. You had to genuinely like someone to consider them your friend. Since the day Ruffnut had rudely awakened him and shown him a new side of herself, he'd so easily allowed himself to forgive her for everything. All of the times she'd been with her brother terrorizing him, trampling on his feelings, and throwing away his attempts at being friends. Because she was the first person to reach out to him, really treat him like a person and not just a nuisance. Someone useful. He saw her as his friend now.

It was a startling, wonderful thing to know that it was mutual. She called him her friend. She liked him. He wasn't useless. They were friends.

If he didn't pull himself together now, he was going to cry, and Ruffnut was never going to let him live it down.

Shrugging the girl off of him, he took a moment to compose himself as he busied his hands by clearing away all the tools haphazardly thrown around the tables, the floor and the anvil. He was thankful that Ruffnut seemed not to notice his inner emotional turmoil earlier, simply crouching low and helping him pick stuff up to, making small talk about things discussed at dinner after he'd left. Most of it was stuff he'd learned from the dragon manual the other day. Nothing important. He smiled, though, at the thoughtfulness she was exhibiting at making sure he hadn't missed anything. Obviously she'd forgotten how irritated she had been with him.

"Hey, so what was it you were doing over here last night?" Ruffnut asked, nudging him a little, "I stopped by your house first, but you weren't there. By the looks of your face, you spent the whole night here!"

Hiccup flushed, remembering the indents, "Uh, yeah. I was here working on something."

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"Aren't you gonna show me what it was you were working on?" she pressed.

"Oh, yeah, wait a sec," Hiccup said over his shoulder to go get his invention from the table. Holding it behind his back as he returned, and could see her rocking back and forth on her heels.

"Is it something that blows stuff up?" she asked excitedly earning her another, this time exasperated, smile from him.

"No, actually, it's supposed to be for Toothless," he explained.

"For Toothless?"

"Yeah," he said pulling out the makeshift tail fin and handing it to her, "I got the idea yesterday from Gobber's lecture. He was talking about how dragons need not only their wings, but their tails to fly. Toothless is missing a fin on his tail. I think that's the thing screwing up his flying. I want to see if this'll fix the problem."

With some nervousness, he watched as she turned the fin over in her hands, looking it over, testing its weight. It was fairly big when folded out. He'd made it to be as light weight as possible, with the exception of the leather, which was meant to lend some sturdiness to the fin. There were also some straps set into it so the fin could be attached to fit to Toothless's tail. Altogether, Hiccup felt like patting himself for a job well done. The design was good and the materials he'd had for it under such short notice were acceptable. He even felt that though it was mostly guess work on the dimensions he'd used to get the size, he had faith it would fit well. If there were any issues, he could adjust it or start over. It wouldn't be so hard once he had a basis and proper measurements. Now, he supposed, it was going through a review by Ruffnut. She was taking her time with it, and her prolonged silence making him fidgety.

"What do you think?" he finally blurted out.

A grin spread across her face causing all the tension he'd been building up to just drain out of him.

"We gotta test this out."

* * *

It was a while before they actually did get to see Toothless for the test drive. They had class not long after Ruffnut had stopped by, in fact, that had been the reason she'd stopped by, to come get him so they could walk together. Of course, she wouldn't admit that fact, claiming she was just making sure he didn't get himself into trouble on his way there and showed up late. Class was really bored for the two teens who wanted nothing more than for it to end already. Especially cause there was little interesting stuff to to go over. Gobber didn't have a new dragon for them to tackle today, instead doing a review over what they'd learned from the gronkle and the nadder. There was also a little weapons practice, with Fishlegs was his partner for practice. He laughed a little at the fact that Ruffnut was paired up with Astrid since the girl seemed so incensed by the fact. It wasn't as bad for him since Fishlegs was as inoffensive towards him as usual and he could sneak secret peeks at Astrid practicing and Ruffnut embarrassing herself.

Ruffnut's ire dissolved by the time class was over and it was just her and Hiccup catching fish for Toothless a short ways away from the coast. They made a game of it, trying to out do the other by seeing who could catch the biggest fish. They had the large wicker container filled quickly, though the winner was inconclusive due to the fact that both of them had managed to hook the largest fish at the same time and neither could figure out just who got it first. Too impatient to sit and squabble over the fish, Ruffnut conceded a tie so they could hurry up and get to Toothless. Like an errant child, she ran ahead of him the entire way to the dragon even bunked down with the fish which she insisted she would carry up.

* * *

The moment of truth arrived when they finally got to the gorge, where Toothless was boredly tottering around.

"Hey Toothless! Look what we got for you!" Ruffnut called out to the dragon.

He peered at her with thinly veiled interest before giving the air a small sniff. His expression was instantly ravenous as he lumbered over to the girl who'd anticipated his enthusiasm and had tipped the basket over to let the plentiful amount of slimy fish spill out. The dragon seemed unperturbed by the sliminess, simply diving in eager as ever. While the dragon was conveniently distracted by the fish and Ruffnut telling him who caught which fish, Hiccup took the opportunity to try and get the fin connected to Toothless's tail. He quickly found it to be difficult when the dragon's tail couldn't keep still. Every time he though it wasn't going to move, it would lazily swish out of his grasp. A low growl let loose as he tried again. Then, Toothless gave a full body jerk backward completely interrupting him.

"What's going on? What's wrong?" He called out, half to Ruffnut, half to Toothless.

"I dunno. He's really freaked out by something in the fish though," Ruffnut replied to him sounding just as bewildered as he was.

Setting aside the fin for now, he came around to see what was going on. Toothless was drawn back away from the fish pile, glaring disgustedly at it and hissing angrily. Looking confused at the dragon first, he looked back at the fish pile trying to figure out what it was in there that was bothering Toothless. Giving a little inward cringe at the grossness, he reached into the fish and pulled out the only thing in the pile that really stood out to him.

"Is this what's bothering you, boy?" Hiccup asked, holding out the eel to the upset dragon.

His hissing grew intenser.

"Yeah, thought so," Hiccup said, tossing the eel out into the lake.

Toothless watched the eel sink into the lake with satisfaction.

"Really big guy?" Ruffnut jibed the dragon, "Afraid of an eel?"

It earned her an indignant huff as he turned away from her and back to his meal.

With Toothless distracted again, Hiccup set back to work getting the fin attached. Ruffnut, after watching him lose the elusive tail twice, intervened by bodily throwing herself down on the tail to keep it in place. Knowing Toothless would get suspicious about what they were doing soon, he jumped at the window Ruffnut had given him and secured the straps on Toothless. It was only seconds later that Toothless cottoned on to what they'd been onto. He gave his tail an experiment shake to test out the fin, causing the two teens to clutch to the tail so as not to be thrown off. With a little pride, Hiccup stared straight down the length of tail he as holding seeing that the fit was near perfect, any size discrepancies were acceptable since it was so close. He and Ruffnut were given little warning before Toothless broke into a run, and held on for dear life as he spread his wings and lifted off into the sky.

"Oh Hel!" Ruffnut yelped from somewhere behind him.

Hiccup looked over his shoulder to see what it as she was yelling out. Toothless was building up more momentum, but he was only going straight, not as much upward. At this rate, he crash and take them with him. He swallowed down a lump in his throat. Toothless would be okay, but it was a different story for him and Ruffnut. Glancing back at the fin that was flagging flaccidly in the wind, he realized it was too flimsy to help Toothless properly maneuver. He let one shaky arm go of the tail, reached out in front of him and pulled the fin out straight and prayed to whatever gods were paying attention that this last ditch effort would save their sorry butts.

Maybe they were with them.

In that pivotal moment, Toothless was able to pull up and out of the one way crash course with the gorge wall. The dragon gave a roar of triumph as he circled around the gorge, as if tauntingly circling defeated foe. The beats of his wings grew more vigorous as he flew higher and higher over the gorge just proving to himself that he once again could. A sharp rise and jerky turn loosened Hiccup's hold on Toothless's tail, though not enough. Unfortunately, the same was not so for Ruffnut. Her hold farther up on the tail was precarious because it was thicker and harder to get her arms around. With a soundless scream, she tumbled off the dragon, plummeting towards the gorge below.

"Ruffnut!" Hiccup exclaimed.

It slipped his mind as he saw her fall past him that it was important to keep working the fin. All that his mind was centered on was that his friend was falling to what looked like her death. And he really didn't want her to die. Hiccup let go of the fin and reached his hand out for her. Tried to grab her, but she was just falling too fast, too far away.

Then, suddenly, everything was falling too.

It took no time for him to figure out what he'd done wrong. Stupid, clumsy Hiccup thing to do. Now not only was Ruffnut falling but now he and Toothless were as well. Scared like he'd never been scared before, he searched for a way out of this. He wasn't searching for long when he remembered the lake, practically saw it coming up to greet him as he fell towards it. Soon, he was submerged in it and wholly grateful to whoever was looking out for him that day that they'd given him a second miracle save. He surfaced spluttering water and swung around searching the rest of the lake for the others. Toothless wasn't far, staring him down like the most interesting thing he'd ever seen.

And then he heard her.

Across the lake he saw her stumbling out of the water, swearing up a storm. Her helmet was missing, and she was soaked, but she looked okay.

He felt such relief.

They were all alright.

Closing his eyes, Hiccup fell back into the water with a tired sigh. He floated there for a while until he felt some movement in the water beside him. Opening his eyes again, he saw that it was Ruffnut and Toothless staring back at him. Ruffnut held her hand out to him with a smirk.

"Crazy day huh?"

"Yeah," he replied breathlessly, letting himself be hauled up.

* * *

**Chapter Three: A Helping Hand** - End

* * *

**AN**: Moving these babies down here so you guys can just get straight to the reading.

Plus I didn't want you guys to have to read this garbage straight off the bat. You don't have to listen to me, you can just skip this if you want. I've been dicking around on you guys by not updating for going on four months now. Half of it was legitimately me being busy with RL obligations, but the other two were me being lazy and unmotivated. I feel awful. This is me, as sincerely as I can, apologizing. I'm sorry. And thanking the two reviewers, Eduard Kassel and MarioDS01 who got me back on the horse. I have such love for you guys, like you don't even know.

Otherwise, on a more light hearted note (I get carried away being serious sometimes), my comments on this chapter. It was a doozie partially due to writer's block and how sketch my outline for it was. It was just, "They try out the fin, yay" sort of. I have the other chapter's a little more fleshed out to this one in comparison. What I liked doing most was Ruffnut and Hiccup's interactions. I get such sick pleasure out of role reversing the two, making Ruffnut the guy and Hiccup the girl in the relationship. Astrid's sort of the same way as Ruffnut, but Ruffnut's a little more rough around the edges and laid back.

The final thing I'd like to say, more like ask, is can you guys throw me some good Norse curses? If you're feeling any kind of charitable. Otherwise, _bis nachher.

* * *

_

Next Installment

Chapter Four: Flying


	5. Chapter Four: Flying

**Chapter Four: Flying**

* * *

After the flying fiasco, Ruffnut had decided to leave all of the getting Toothless sky-worthy business to Hiccup. The sensation of shooting up into the sky had been pretty exhilarating, but the almost dying bit had put a damper on her desire to fly again any time soon. Therefore, she was waiting until Hiccup had perfected the gear and flying method until she considered giving it another go. The way things were progressing in the last couple of weeks, it probably wouldn't be long until he had it all figured out.

She and Hiccup had been spending just about every day hanging out with Toothless. Every day, they learned something new and interesting about their dragon companion. It was hard to ever believe the guy could have harmed a fly with the way he'd roll around in dragon nip or faint in rapturous bliss whenever scratched behind the ear just right. Both she and Hiccup had been reduced to tears laughing at the sight of him. Of course, the dragon refused to be made the butt of a joke and would chase them down the minute he recovered. Sometimes it was really hard to leave him behind at the end of the day and go back to the real world. All that was out there was Berk. She almost stayed one time when Toothless had caught her vest in his mouth and tried to tug her and Hiccup back.

Ever since first finding him, there'd been an unspoken pact between the two humans to never harm a dragon. Harming another dragon would be wrong, it was like trying to hurt another person, someone who for all they knew was a friend of Toothless's. So the two devised non-violent ways to get through dragon training. Hiccup had figured out a way after the first failed attempt to try and get Toothless flying. He reminded her of when they'd been feeding the dragon earlier and of Toothless's reaction towards the eel. Curious, he'd decided to test his theory about them in class the next day. Even Ruffnut had been stunned by how effective wearing the eel had been as a repellent for the zippleback. The dragon had literally scuttled away from Hiccup when it smelled that he had eels on him and hissed at him safely from its cave.

To say the others had been shocked was an understatement. Hiccup, suddenly very shy over his success, had bailed before anyone could ask questions. That left Ruffnut with what could've been likened to a pack of starving wolves snapping at her for information and details.

"How'd he do that?"

"That was amazing!"

"What's his secret?"

"Is it some kind of technique?"

"Do you know how to do that too?"

In hopes to cover for Hiccup, who was obviously uncomfortable with the attention he'd received from the others, Ruffnut claimed that Hiccup didn't shower enough and probably scared the dragon off with his horrible smell. Tuffnut, Snotlout, and Fishlegs accepted this excuse at face value. She imagined that as guys, they knew a thing or two about foul odors and their repelling effect. Astrid seemed a little harder to fool. She'd pinned Ruffnut with a look that screamed, "_I don't believe you, you're lying, you're lying, you're lying!_" though she didn't say otherwise. Her eyes just continued to follow the taller girl with a distinctly predatory gleam. When Ruffnut managed to subdue the gronkle with dragon nip a couple days later, the attention only got more intense. It made Ruffnut paranoid enough to not join Hiccup that day at the gorge like she had planned.

That turned out to be a good decision when she caught Astrid literally stalking her after a couple intentional loops around the village. The girl had been hoping Ruffnut would lead her to whatever secret training ground she and Hiccup were sharing and spy on the techniques they were developing to beat dragons. The remaining villagers milling about had all gathered to watch Ruffnut loudly tell the other girl off for her nosy, annoying behavior. Her brother calling, "Cat fight!" on the sidelines only fed her ire, though the confrontation never came to blows. Ruffnut wasn't completely stupid. In a fair fight, Astid would probably win. The only way she'd get the upper hand was if she played dirty, and the Thorston girl's pride would never let her stoop to those kinds of means against anyone other than her pain in the ass twin.

When night had fallen that day, she and Hiccup and met up so they could figure out what to do to keep Astrid off their tracks. The only way they could keep the dragons from being hurt in class was by gently incapacitating them themselves. Unfortunately, that would draw Astrid to them like a moth to a flame. They both knew the stubborn girl's temperament well enough to know she wouldn't quit. All of Ruffnut's plans ended in a possible fight breaking out between them and the mini dragon slayer, so Hiccup threw them all out. They didn't want to injure the other girl (or end up injured themselves). He thought a while before explaining his own idea.

* * *

_"Well, Ruffnut, it's obvious that Astrid is focusing on you," Hiccup started._

_"Joy of all joys," Ruffnut grumbled, "Thanks for reminding me."_

_"Would you mind it if you kept her attention on you?" he asked her seriously._

_Biting down the urge to immediately refuse the request she opted instead to ask why and how._

_"I want to keep working on Toothless's flying. I'm really close to getting it right. I think I only need a couple of days, at most a week, before I can get him flying perfectly without any problems. It's a dangerous time for Astrid to be walking in on us. So what I'm proposing is that from now on, you excel at the dragon training and she'll follow you around while I head to the gorge. You could eventually give her slip after leading her on a wild goose chase and meet up with me and Toothless," he explained, pausing to chuckle, "I've got to make sure to teach you how to fly, too!"_

_She levelled him with a glare._

_"It um..." he stuttered, "It wasn't so bad that last time. And, maybe this time you'd...like it?"_

_The glare shifted into an incredulous look._

_"Okay, well, we'll just have to wait and see then-"_

_Gobber coming in interrupted any further conversation.

* * *

_

After that class, Ruffnut did all of the work in dragon training. It made her really familiar with some of the dragons, who loved being pet by the girl. She also developed a disturbingly accurate sense for whenever Astrid was around (Hiccup just liked to tell her it was paranoia). As if she hadn't already spent enough time around the girl before Toothless, the amount of time spent in close proximity being stalked by the girl after class was driving her insane. Every day she had to come up with a new and different ways of ditching Astrid so she could safely escape to the gorge. By this point, she knew every nook, cranny, and hidey-hole in Berk because of her need to throw the girl warrior off of her trail.

One of her favorite places to go to wait out Astrid had become the caves they kept the dragons. Astrid never thought of it because no viking in their right mind (except for her and maybe Hiccup) would put themselves in an enclosed space with a dragon. At first, when she'd stumbled onto this hiding place, she'd been genuinely afraid when she figured out she'd slipped into a cave with a dragon. With her back to the door, she and the gronkle had had a very long stare down where neither really knew what to do with the other. The gronkle was just as stunned to see her as she was to see it. Ruffnut had been so freaked out, she forgot to keep an ear out for Astrid and missed the girl leaving in a huff at not find what she'd been looking for. Eventually, she did realize the coast was clear and left in a hurry tell Hiccup, not turning her back on the dragon as she exited.

It was with Hiccup's encouragement and advice that she went back the next day and the day after to talk to all of the dragons and get to know them and their habits. It turned out that all of them were harmless hams when unprovoked. Her favorites were the gronkle, who was a friendly sweetheart, and the terrible terror, who liked to drape itself across her shoulders and chew on her hair. The other dragons were still wary of her intentions, though they were more receptive after she decided to take a page out of Hiccup's book and bribe them with food offerings.

At that moment, she was playing with the zippleback. The two headed dragon had been feeling a little frisky and stole her helmet. Now it was doing a monkey in the middle with her and her helmet, her in the middle trying to get it to return their helmet which they were passing back and forth between one another. Not that she minded or anything. This was the first time she'd seen the zippleback in such a silly mood. Every time she'd visited so far, it had just been interested in the food and skittish whenever she tried to get close. She was starting to wonder if all dragons had an obsession shiny things, considering how the two heads were currently fighting over who got to look at its reflection in the helmet longest. With amusement, she watched as they started to fight more fervidly with each other, not realizing that they'd just dropped the helmet back into her awaiting arms.

With a little fondness, she was reminded a lot of how she and her twin acted with one also made her wonder what Tuffnut had been up to these last couple of weeks. She wasn't around much these days, so she didn't see him outside of dragon training. What kind of shenanigans was he getting himself into with only Snotlout to hang out with and no one around to be a voice of reason when things got too out of hand? Ruffnut even though the last two weeks had been more fun than she'd ever had or imagined, she kind of missed the idiot being there having fun with her. Unfortunately, she didn't expect him to understand or share the love of dragons she could only share secretly with Hiccup. She knew how to keep secrets from her twin, but this was the one secret she never wanted to.

"Ruffnut?"

There was Hiccup, standing at the entrance of the cave. His hair was mussed up and there was the huge dopey grin on his face that he only wore when it was just the two of them. It was cute. A blush heated up her pale cheeks when she realized she liked seeing him like this.

"Hey Haddock," she greeted him, putting her helmet back on haphazardly.

The zippleback's heads had decided to come to a truce right at that moment to re-steal her helmet. They happily ignored her irritated look as they set the helmet on a rock higher than she could reach and proceeded to look at themselves in it.

"Stupid serpents," she muttered, embarrassingly flushing again.

One of the zippleback's tail's swatted her on the backside. She yowled in pain, causing Hiccup to guffaw at the antics.

"Oh, shut up you," Ruffnut growled, smacking the laughing boy on the shoulder.

Trying to calm his laugh, he managed to wheeze out an, "Okay, I'm sorry!" before succumbing to the urge to laugh once more. Throwing her arms up in frustration, she stomped out of the cave without saying goodbye to the narcissistic dragon or bothering to reclaim her helmet. That was just a lost cause at the moment. She'd find a way to take it back later.

"Hey, wait up Ruffnut!" Hiccup yelled after her.

She pretended not to hear him.

"Oh come on!' he whined once he'd caught up. He started to walk backwards in front of her, "I said I was sorry!"

"And then started laughing at me again. That's not very sorry Haddock."

"You have to admit, it was pretty funny," he said chuckling, though they faded off as she glared back at him, "Okay fine, not funny at all. How about we just say it all just never happened?"

"I could live with that," Ruffnut responded.

The boy let out a sigh of relief and fell back into step with her at her side...

And then suddenly grabbed her wrist and dragged her as fast as possible in the direction of the forest.

"What the hell Haddock?" she squawked as he pulled her along.

"I just remembered! I came to get you because have something really important to show you!"

"Wait, wait! Stop!"

Reluctantly, he paused to hear what she had to day.

"What if Astrid's about? She might follow us to," she lowered her voice, "_Toothless_."

He shot her a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry about that. I bumped into her looking for you on my way over here and told her you might be training down near the docks. She won't catch us."

"Ohhhhh. You're good."

She gave him an approving look, applauding his brilliant excuse. He shyly ducked his head, enjoying the feeling of being praised by her. Putting her arm through his, she nudged him to get him walk along with her in the direction of the gorge.

"Alright, spill. What's this thing you have to show me?"

"Let's just hurry. You'll understand when we get there."

* * *

"No way," she exclaimed.

Standing in front of her was Hiccup and Toothless, rider and dragon both equipped in their full riding gear. Hiccup was wearing his leather breastplate and Toothless his saddle with the foot pedal that manipulated the flap equipped to his tail. In Hiccup's hands was another leather breastplate out to her that looked very close to her size.

"Is that for me?"

Hiccup nodded.

"So I'm supposed to wear it?"

"Yeah."

"Now?"

"Yes Ruffnut, now," he answered her patiently.

"Then that means we're finally doing it now. Flying I mean."

He laughed.

"Pretty much."

"Don't you dare laugh at me," she told him seriously as she stepped forward to take the breastplate from him.

"What for?" he asked, blinking in surprise at what she said.

"I'm just, I don't know. You sure it's safe?" she finally, nervously asked.

She was scared of falling.

"It's safe, Ruff. I flew myself to make sure. I won't let you fall off this time," Hiccup replied, his voice soft, but the promise was there.

It was all she needed to hear. Slipping off her fur vest, she pulled the breastplate on. Hiccup had been pretty good with guess the size she needed. It was a little big on her, but she liked having a little wiggle room. Once she had the side all buckled up, she moved forward to join Hiccup at Toothless's side, Toothless nipping at her a little letting her know he was happy to see her and excited. The boy levered himself up onto the waiting dragon and held a hand out to her. With only a second's hesitation, Ruffnut reached out and took it. He gently helped her up and waited as she got settled. The saddle was a little uncomfortable to sit on, though she imagined it would probably be more uncomfortable to go without. Up to this point in her life, she'd never had any riding experience ever. The people of Berk didn't have many horses, they just didn't see the need for them. If they wanted to go somewhere, they walked or they sailed.

Nervous once more, she tried to bite down her anxiety. This wasn't just about proving she wasn't a coward. She wanted Hiccup to know she trusted him to do this. Trusted him to take them flying and not let her get hurt. She wanted to trust her friend with her life. Closing her eyes, she leaned into Hiccup, burying her face in his back and wrapping her arms around waist. Hiccup took this as the sign she was ready. Patting Toothless on the neck, he called out to the dragon.

"Let's go boy!"

Her stomach felt like it left her the minute she felt them propel up. Closing her eyes hadn't been the wisest choice. Not being able to see and know she was going to be was only making it worse. Turning her face away from Hiccup's back, she cracked her eyes the slightest bit. Light spilled in, and for a while all she could see was white. Looking back in front of herself, she could barely make out fuzzy the outline of Hiccup's figure tightly held to her own. It was like they were caught up in a fog of some kind. She couldn't see anything except Hiccup infront of her and Toothless right beneath her.

Then everything burst into color.

She'd seen many a sunset before. Some from her bedroom window. Some from the coast right at the water's edge. Some with Hiccup at the gorge, their bodies propped up against their dragon. But never before had she seen a sunset like this one. Never this special. The sun glowed like an enormous golden orange hued ember. Its warm aura spread across the sky, orange fading into pink and then into purple with bluey hints on the farthest edges. And that was just the sky. Below them, all that could be seen in every direction was the sea and the clouds, softly reflecting back the colors.

Coming up on their right was a large wispy cloud. Slowly, she released her right arm from holding Hiccup and stuck it out so she could touch it. Ruffnut shivered as the cool winds buffeted it. When her hand made contact with the cloud, it just slipped through her fingers like the air all around. Unable to contain her enjoyment, she finally gave a whoop of excitement.

"I see you're enjoying it," Hiccup called back to her.

"This is so much fun," she giggled to herself, not really caring if she sounded more foolish than usual.

"I'm glad you think so." After a lengthy pause, he spoke again, "Before it gets too dark, I want to show you something else that's even cooler than this."

"How can anything be cooler than this?" she asked, as if daring him to prove her wrong.

"Alright, something cooler, coming right up!" he cheered, turning Toothless in the right direction.

* * *

"So where is it Haddock?" Ruffnut whipped her head around trying to pick out something that stood out. "What is it?"

"Here," he said reaching into the satchel he'd put on Toothless's side and taking out a fish. He put it into her hand, "You'll probably need this."

"What?" Toothless saw the fish in her hand and tried to nab it. She pushed him away with her free hand. "No, not for you boy. I think Haddock had something else in mind for this guy."

Moving away from the dragon, she went back to trying to spot whatever Hiccup had brought her to this strange little off shore island to see. The place was tiny (from certain places, she could see straight across) and the ground rocky. It was pretty lifeless, with the exception of this little lizard that seemed to be rooting around for food. And that other one over there. And the one over there and its friend that had just crawled out of a hole somewhere. Here eyes widened when she finally realized what Hiccup had meant.

They weren't lizards. They were all terrible terrors. Not just one or two, but now five and there were more coming out of the wood works to investigate the newcomers to there island. One or two of them bounded over to Hiccup and Toothless, but the remainder of them crowded around Ruffnut, staring up at her with their giant goggling eyes hungrily. The eyes would flick back and forth between her face and the fish pleadingly. Looking to Hiccup for some guidance, he chuckled back at her and gestured for her to hand the fish over to them. Bending down to their level, she held it out to them and in a second it disappeared, brutally torn into several pieces and swallowed by the pint-sized dragons. She marvelled at the sheer number of them. There had to be at least fifteen of them now, all flocking to her, Hiccup, and Toothless.

"It's an entire den of terrors," she whispered in wonder.

"I know, right?" Hiccup said, as two fluttered up and each took a shoulder to perch on, "They've been living here all this time peacefully. Imagine if people in the village ever found out about them? They aren't a threat. Everything we knew about them is a lie. Even in these numbers, they don't hurt anyone."

Looking at the exuberant little devils nipping around her ankles, tugging on her clothes and hair, licking at her hand as if it would magically have more treats for them. They were adorable. Sitting herself down, she let one crawl up into her lap and watched the rest as they played. Dragons really were amazing. Today, she flew on a night fury, had her helmet stolen by a zippleback and played with terrible terrors. There was so much everyone else was missing out on. Sure, sometimes they came off scary, stole food from the vikings and trashed the village. They had the same right to food as the vikings did; they stole food for their survival.

The vikings of Berk were living fat and happy compared to the dragons. And when they weren't at home eating and drinking, they were out on raiding parties hunting down and killing dragons for sport. One thing the last two weeks had taught her about dragons she'd come into contact with was that they didn't go looking for fights. They only attacked humans when they were being threatened themselves. It was always the viking who initiated the battle. With everything dragons could do, it was ridiculous to think that the vikings could ever stand a chance against the dragons if they really wanted to wipe them out. The self-imposed war the vikings waged against the dragons was so one-sided, Ruffnut didn't know whether to laugh at the uselessness of it or feel horrible that so many of her kinsmen and dragons died because of it.

She wished for a lot of things. That their people would realize the slaughter they were committing themselves to and turn to more honorable, worthwhile pursuits. That the dragons would stop dying such wasteful deaths for what was simply their nature. Sitting here with her best friend and the dragons, she wished there was something they could do to stop it all themselves. If only everything could be the way it was with her and Hiccup, maybe it wouldn't be so horrible for everyone else.

"You were right Hiccup."

His attention shifted back to her, away from the terror he'd knelt down next to pet.

"This is cooler than the flying."

Hiccup laughed.

"The flying could be cooler though. I could've shown you all of the tricks that Toothless can pull off. Now that's really flying." He stopped when he looked back at her. "I just didn't want to scare you or anything. After the last time, well, safety was more important than the tricks."

Touched, she stood again, carrying the terrible with her, and took a seat next to him.

"Don't worry so much about me," she chastised him lightly, giving him a light push with her shoulder, "I'm made out of tougher stuff than you think. Kick your ass any day, that's for sure."

"I know you can," he conceded, "But up in the air," he gestured up with his hands, "that's a whole nother game up there. We've both almost died trying to fly once. Up there, we've got to watch out for each other."

"Ah come on," she exclaimed, throwing an arm around Hiccup's shoulders, "That's Toothless's job. Can't let his humans die. He needs us to feed him."

Behind the two teens, said dragon let out an indignant snort, setting the amused pair off. When it was time to go, they bid goodbye to their little dragon friends and climbed onto Toothless's back. With a running start, Toothless cut into the now dark sky carrying the them home.

* * *

**Chapter Four: Flying** - End

* * *

AN: Just to let everyone know, I've made a new limit for myself. I get one month to update. I'll try to go faster, but I'm still going through some tough stuff right now that begs my attention more than my fanfiction. I know y'all must be tired of me constantly asking this of you, but stay patient. And thank you for being my watch dog, MarioDS01, my ever vigilant reader.

* * *

Next Installment

Chapter Five: Stoic's Return


	6. Chapter Five: Stoick's Return

**Chapter Five: Stoick's Return**

* * *

Hiccup had seemingly completely forgotten about it, but somehow, a part of him hadn't. A sense of foreboding and dread managed to creep up and warn him with barely any time to mentally or physically prepare for it.

His father was coming home.

The past couple of weeks, he'd been perfectly content in forgetting his father existed. Sure, it got lonely coming home and knowing he'd be alone for the rest of the night. But life seemed to be moving so fast during the day, a little peaceful solitude at the end of it seemed appropriate. The morning started with dragon training, doing well enough that Gobber wasn't concerned but at the same time, not well enough to draw more attention than necessary. Showing off in class was Ruffnut's job. Sure, his friend acted like it was a hassle being mobbed by admiring classmates, but he knew that secretly, she liked having people noticing her. Hiccup could remember wanting nothing more than to have the spotlight on him, with the village cheering his name and lauding his accomplishments. He honestly could have had it too. If he hadn't practically twisted Ruffnut's arm into doing it, it could've been him laying claim to all of the glory and praise for doing so well at dragon training.

Amazing how everything became so different in the last two weeks.

When did he stop wanting to be noticed so badly? He'd always fought so hard for attention, like desperate and starved. Now, he actively avoided it. He had Ruffnut act as a distraction while he discretely snuck off after class to the gorge to hang out with Toothless and learn to fly. Purposely ducked out on any advances Astrid made to try and talk to him even though he had the world's biggest crush on the girl. He didn't even try to actively participate in any raids, just helped Gobber repair the weapons coming in from the defenders. No attempts to try and fight a dragon or show off another prototype invention that was destined to fail in the worst way possible. He was just kind of done with showing off. The only people he felt like impressing anymore were Ruffnut and Toothless, if the dragon could be considered a person.

All the possibilities of village wide popularity had been traded for a friendship where the people he shared it with understood and accepted who he was without wanting to change him. He'd always thought that it would be so much better if he could trade someone all of his intelligence for even half the ability his father possessed fighting dragons. His brain always seemed like a waste and a traitor to all his dreams and desires, so what was the use? The last two weeks proved that being smart was worth something. If you were smart, you could figure out the trajectory of a flying Night fury and shoot it out of the sky. If you were smart, you studied a dragon's behavior patterns and learned from them exactly what their weaknesses were. If you were smart, you knew how to repair a dragon's tail and learn how to fly with it. Any other person in Berk wouldn't understand any of those things the way he did. With Ruffnut's help, his eyes had been opened to the fact that he could do something with the skill set he had. And not just something, but something amazing.

Even if it was a secret, even if it was just him, her and a dragon that knew, it was their secret and it was special and precious to him and he didn't need popularity if it meant he had to give up that. He didn't need his father's approval to enjoy sunsets with his best friends, or to fly, or do any of the other things he loved to do when it was just him in the gorge with them. Unfortunately, it was exactly his father and people outside of their little home away from home that could ruin it. They'd already been concerned about Astrid's stalking habits getting them caught. Now that his father, and when he thought about it, Ruffnut's father as well, was home, they wouldn't have the same kind of freedom they had before to run around and disappear off to the gorge.

The collective realization made his stomach twist into knots.

* * *

"Hey Ruffnut?"

Said girl lifted her head from where it had been rested upon the stomach of their dragon. They'd already gone flying, and were just lying around doing nothing. Hiccup had been trying to relax, but couldn't after all the thinking he'd been doing.

"Yeah?" Her eyes looked in his direction, unfocused from sleepiness.

"What are we gonna do once our dads are back?"

Those were the magic words, as Ruffnut snapped herself out of her sleepy daze and into awareness.

"What about it?"

"It's just that, well, we can't keep this secret forever I guess. If it had just been Astrid we were dealing with before, I guess. Astrid was one person. Don't you think both of our dads will make it even harder?"

Ruffnut snorted.

"My dad? When he's not out swinging an axe he's drinking or he's sleeping. The only person he talks to anymore is Tuffnut and that's to tell him he better uphold the family honor and become the best dragon slayer ever. He won't be winning any 'most observant father of the year' awards. Trust me." She said this so bitterly, he had to wonder if her relationship with her father was just as difficult as the one he had with his own.

"I guess that's yours. But my dad, every person in this village is his eyes and ears. If someone sees me doing something suspicious, it'll get back to my dad. He literally has people like Gobber monitoring me in case it seems like I'm going to do something that will result in destruction of public property. How long until he starts snooping into our business?"

"Then we have to work harder to keep this under wraps," Ruffnut replied.

"It can't be that simple Ruffnut. I..." he paused, "If he gets too suspicious, I might not be able to keep coming back here."

Both Ruffnut and Toothless looked disgruntled by his words.

"Hiccup, do I have to come over there and beat some sense into you?"

"I'm being serious Ruff. If my dad comes back and starts looking into what we're doing here, I'm going to stop coming. I'm not going to let him find Toothless."

"He's not going to find out about Toothless," Ruffnut argued.

Beside her, Toothless was listening to the conversation, giving him almost the same defiant expression Ruffnut was giving him.

"How can you be sure? Tell me, are you willing to risk Toothless on just the belief that my dad, who is the chief of the vikings, an avid dragon hunter and killer, won't find him and proceed to kill him? I'm sorry I don't have the same faith as you do Ruffnut."

"I'm sorry," Ruffnut finally said, "I just, well, I don't want you, I mean we, me and Toothless, don't want you to stop coming. Our group isn't complete if you're not there too."

Hiccup sighed.

"No, you don't have to apologize. I'm the one who should be sorry for getting mad. I don't want to stop coming either. I'm just frustrated that I might have to give this up if it will protect Toothless from being found."

"Jeeze, when did keeping this secret get so hard?" Ruffnut complained.

"It's always been hard. We just forgot."

"Yeah, sure," Ruffnut said, "Just, if you can, if it's not impossible, try to come back, alright?"

"I'll try. No promises."

"I guess that's all I can ask for," Ruffnut muttered, laying her head back down onto Toothless's stomach, turning away from him.

* * *

Hiccup spent the rest of his afternoon back at Gobber's forge. His mood was solemn and restless. More than Ruffnut would ever be able to realize, he wanted to be able to stick around. He wasn't eager to give up something he enjoyed so much, not unless it was a last resort. As hard as he thought about it, he was getting nowhere. His mind kept wandering back to how much he'd upset Ruffnut. He honestly hadn't expected her to react that adamantly against his decision. Concentrating on the situation at hand was difficult when the thought of her being angry with him made him so anxious. Frustrated, he slumped over onto his work desk and started at flicking his charcoal pencil his eyes following its up and down motion along the wooden surface. It served as a nice distraction his preoccupation with Ruffnut's displeasure with him.

Of course, it kept him so distracted, he didn't pay attention to how quickly the sun had left and the dark had fallen upon the forge. He was finally forced to stop fiddling when a large form let itself into his workroom. Thinking it was Gobber coming to talk or give him some work to do, he leaped to attention. It was with horror that he realized it wasn't Gobber who had come into the doorway but his own father. The first thing that occurred to him as he set his eyes on him was that the sketches he'd made earlier of Toothless were sitting on the table out on the table in plain sight. Trying to be inconspicuous, he used his right arm to start shuffling the papers around so that the depictions of Toothless couldn't be seen, never once moving his eyes from his father's.

"Dad!" he exclaimed, still frantically swatting at the papers as much as possible without drawing attention, "You're back!"

Hiccup stood shakily on uneven footing, and swayed precariously. Steadying himself, he placed a hand on top of the papers hoping if he spread his fingers wide enough, maybe they'd cover more of the drawings. His father remained silent, stonily staring down Hiccup. It made him even more nervous.

"Gobber's not here so..." He really hoped that was the real reason his father was actually here.

"I know," his father said quietly as he let himself in further, "I came looking for you."

Mentally, he cursed. If it had been out loud and Ruffnut had witnessed it, she would've been proud.

"You have?" Hiccup asked with faux nonchalance, his attempts to cover up his papers becoming more desperate.

"You've been keeping secrets."

If it was possible, he swore to Odin that his stomach just dropped several stone throws' lengths into the abyss. Maybe he was freaking out unnecessarily. Okay, yeah, he was keeping secrets. He'd never told his father about the axe he'd stolen and then consequently broken when trying to build something. Never admitted that that one time their house had burned down, it had actually been his fault because he'd been trying to heat some leftover stew in the pot over the fire. There were toys he'd had from when he was little still stashed under his bed even though he'd been told he was outgrowing them. Hiccup was keeping secrets. It's not like his Father had to know about the one single secret that would probably ruin everything. _Don't panic. Don't panic. Don't lose your cool now._

"Uh, I-I have?"

"Just how long did you think you could hide it from me?"

The way he leaned forwards a little menacingly didn't ease Hiccup's nerves. The dark cast across the planes of his face and the tiny gleams of the flame reflecting off of his eyes made him look particularly fierce. He took a gulp. _Don't panic. Don't panic. Don't give yourself away, not yet._

"I don't know what you're..."

"Nothing," Stoick said loudly and forcefully, "Happens on this island without me hearing about it."

_Please don't know, don't panic, don't panic._

"So..." the man straightened his back, making his already tall imposing figure even more tall and imposing than it was on a regular basis, "let's talk... about that girl whose been following you around..."

Loki's saggy troll infested right nut. Astrid. She'd finally caught them. She'd gone straight to his father with the information and this was the moment of truth. He was dead. Now was the time to panic, get on his knees and beg for his life. This was his father so maybe he'd only get a life time's sentence in the dungeons.

"Oh gods. Dad I'm so sorry. I-I..." he ran an unsteady, quaking hand through his hair as his eyes darting around the room looking for exit, "Astrid was just... I was going to tell you. I just didn't know how to...uh..."

His ditch effort to explain died off as his father began to shake with what, at first he feared was rage, but turned out to be mirth...He was laughing? How could he be laughing when his son was keeping a secret pet, that was a Night Furry and the most dangerous dragon the vikings had yet faced? There was something really wrong with this picture.

"This was exactly what I was hoping for!"

"Really?"

"I knew you had it in you son. Somewhere in there, you had a decent dragon slayer waiting to come out."

Okay, what in the name of Hel?

"Um...what?"

"Gobber's told me all about it. You've improved so much since...well, you've improved. And now, you're attracting all these ladies."

"Attracting...ladies?" Hiccup asked, starting to feel overwhelmed by the sudden reversal in their conversation.

"I've heard about how you and the Thorston girl have gotten pretty cozy. She's a fine match for you, that one. With the way she excels in dragon training, word is she's a shoo-in for winning. She'll make you a fine wife and dragon slaying partner. The Thorston's are a good family, a marriage between theirs and ours would produce fine offspring."

_Wife?_ _Offspring?_ Dear Odin. _That _was what his father meant? Hiccup was mortified, caught up on the implication his father considered Ruffnut his girlfriend. I mean, they were just friends. She was just a girl.

"Wait, Dad!' You've got the wrong idea!"

"Oh, I guess I do. Your heart's somewhere else, isn't it son?"

"What? I- no-"

"You mentioned an Astrid, didn't you? Phlegma's daughter? Looks a lot like your mother, pretty too. And she's nothing to sneeze at as far as ability is concerned. Not a bad choice. Haven't you held a torch for her all of these years?"

Great. Of all of the times his father had decided to be observant of his life, it was for this. To meddle in his love life. It was more like, lack there of, not that his father would accept that. He didn't have time to be thinking of girlfriends. He had Toothless to take care of. Having Ruffnut as just his friend and Astrid as a stalker was more than enough for now.

"Dad, I don't want to talk about this right now!" Hiccup exclaimed, his cheeks burning so red, all of his freckles had virtually disappeared.

"You're right," Stoick conceded, "It's too early for you too settle down. With two excellent girls to choose from, you've got to weigh your options before we talk wedding proposals."

There was no getting through to him, Hiccup thought to himself exasperatedly as he groaned.

"Before I forget," his father said, "Here's something I've been waiting to give you for a while. Once you started training."

He held out a helmet. The boy took it gingerly by the horns.

"Had it made from your mother's breast plate." Immediately, the helmet felt like a filthy object in his hands. His father knocked on his own helmet perched upon his head. "Matching set. To keep her close."

Even with the solemn feel of the statement, Hiccup still couldn't get past the awkward weirdness of the fact that the helmet he was holding had touched his mother's... her... He couldn't even think the phrase.

"Well, um," he started, before faking a yawn, "Thanks for the, uh, breast hat, I mean, helmet, but I'm feeling really tired. So I'm just gonna, you know..."

Thankfully his father took the hint that it was time for him to leave. They spent a minute or two of weird partings and "see you back at home, whenever"s before Stoick finally let himself out, causing a commotion just outside the door. Hiccup winced at the sound, knowing Gobber'd hold him accountable for it and have to clean it all up in the morning. Once he was sure his father was gone, he ran both his hands through his hair before letting his head fall and hit the desk. Now he had to figure out how he was going explain all of this to Ruffnut.

* * *

"Okay, spill."

"Huh?"

The hand he'd been petting Tootless with stilled as he nervously looked to his friend. Ruffnut had her arms crossed, and was tapping her foot expectantly.

"You've got that look on your face," she explained, "You know, the one where you've got something to say but you don't know how to say it. Just say it already. Even if it's got complicated words and stuff I won't understand, get it over with and I'll ask questions after."

He groaned.

"I can't say it. It's just..."

"Is it about your dad coming home?" she asked, her tone softening, "Are you really not going to be able to come back?"

"Sort of," Hiccup said, "I mean, it does have to do with my dad. But uh, with the coming back thing, it depends."

Ruffnut frowned.

"My dad and I talked about what's been going since the raiding party's been gone."

"Does he know about Toothless?"

"Thankfully, no. He has absolutely no clue."

"Isn't that a good thing?"

"Sort of."

"If you keep saying sort of, I'm going to smack you Haddock!" Ruffnut yelled, "What the makes your dad not knowing about Toothless a bad thing?"

"He's kind of under the wrong impression of why I come here so often..." He was hoping she'd figure it out for herself, but seeing her blank look, he realized he was going to be forced to clarify. "He thinks that you and I are..."

Backing up into Toothless, he hoped Ruffnut wasn't going to get mad at him. It felt like deja-vu when instead of getting mad, she laughed at him like his father had the night before.

"He-He thinks that you and I -!" she managed between guffaws, "That _we_-?"

"I thought you'd be mad."

"Mad? Of course not! This is hilarious!" She started swiping at her eyes; she was laughing so hard she was crying. "Really Haddock, you had me worried there."

"Worried?"

"I thought you were going to tell me something worse!"

"Wait a second," Hiccup interrupted, "You're seriously not bothered at all that my dad and apparently half the village thinks that when we disappear together every day, we're going out?"

"Not really," she said shrugging her shoulders carelessly, "Now, if rumors of me and that idiot Snoutlout being together started circulating, than I'd want to start chopping some people's heads off."

"Really?"

"Is this one of your insecurity moments Haddock?" Ruffnut asked sardonically.

Before he knew it, she was kneeling in front of him mussing up his hair.

"Hey! Ow, stop that!"

She slapped his hands away every time he tried to stop her.

"There we go," she said to herself, nodding at her work in satisfaction, "See, not bad at all."

"What the heck was that for?"

"Like this," she motioned to his hair, "You look good. I mean, nothing beats real wind swept hair, but when you haven't got it all in your face, which I am sure is responsible for messing up your sight and causing more than half of your clumsy moments, you seem kind of... cooler. You're still really dorky, but a cool kind of dorky. The kind of dork who knows all this stuff that goes right over pretty much everyone's heads but is the only person who can say they can ride dragons at the end of the day. That puts you a million levels better in my book than all of the other guys on this island. And you're the only one who is actually my friend, and the only one I can stand talking to for more than minute." Hiccup gawked at her. "Okay fine, I actually don't mind you talking at all."

Hiccup was speechless.

"So of course I don't care what people think about whatever is going on with you or me or _us_," she said, making air quotes on the word 'us', "While I'd prefer it if we never made the rumor mill in the first place, if it's you, it's not a problem."

"You're sure?" Hiccup managed to ask over the lump in his throat.

"Yeah. Jeeze, you sure don't do insecurity very well. I thought you were working on it."

Ducking his head, he laughed a little.

"Insecurity isn't something that just goes away Ruff. Not easy anyway."

"Whatever, you'll get there one of these days."

"Hey," he said, glancing up so he could catch her eye, "What if I asked you out, you know, for real?"

"Huh?"

"I mean," Hiccup quickly said, back pedaling, "Hypothetically, if I asked you to go out with me, would you go out with me?"

Her eyes went wide.

"Wait, are you asking me out?"

The high pitch of her voice shook Toothless out of the doze he'd been in. He snorted at the two humans and then got up to go find a place that was quieter where they'd be less likely to disturb him. They watched him go for a while till he was out of sight then Ruffnut settled her expectant gaze back on Hiccup.

"I don't know, I mean, I think you're the nicest girl I know. Unfortunately that's not saying much considering that the only two girls my age I know are you and Astrid," Hiccup confessed.

"That's actually saying a lot Hiccup," Ruffnut said, sounding really touched, "I'm not blind. I know you have a crush on Astrid. All the other boys do. It's not hard to see it either. She's really pretty and she's good at fighting."

"But she's not my friend," Hiccup stated, "And she's never said anything nice to me. Sure, you make fun of me some times, but it's different from what you used to say before Toothless. I know you don't mean it to be...mean. Just honest. Astrid... Yeah, she's pretty. But she's always so serious. All she cares about is being the best slayer. If I want to have a girlfriend, I want a girlfriend who likes me and likes the things I like. Someone who can joke around with me. I can't see her understanding what we have here with Toothless. It's-it's just a crush..."

"So..."

"So..."

"Are you asking me out?"

"Maybe."

They sat in silence for a while, watching each other with a mix of wariness and something else. Finally, Ruffnut broke the silence.

"Not yet."

"What?"

"Don't ask me out yet."

"Why?" Hiccup asked, bewildered, "I mean, hasn't this whole conversation just been leading up to why we should go out?"

"Well, the way I see it, neither of us is really sure whether we want to date. You _might_ like me and I _kind of_ like you. You're _maybe_ asking me out and I'm _not against_ the idea. And you admitted that you still have a crush on Astrid. So right now, it's not the best time for trying to decide this. I'm fine being just friends for right now."

Unexpected, the disappointment at her shooting him down was more of a bummer than he'd anticipated.

"Wait!" Ruffnut exclaimed, "I'm not saying I'm not interested at all. I'm just trying to say that let's give it some time. I want you to really like me. I want you to completely forget about Astrid. When you're sure you like me, you get back to me on it and you ask me out. The right way. Understand?"

Some of the disappointment eased away. He could live with that, he supposed. Hiccup could remember a time when he only looked at Ruffnut as simply the not male twin, and not like a girl. Like an actual girl he could potentially be interested in. It was all very surreal. Ruffnut was his friend. Ruffnut was a girl. He'd just almost asked Ruffnut out. He decided to give up puzzling it out and nodded in response to her demand. A genuinely happy smile graced her lips. Yeah, this was okay.

* * *

**Chapter Five: Stoick's Return **- End

* * *

AN: Took a little longer on this one cause I wanted to get things right just because to me, this was a big scene. I actually find Hiccup a lot easier to write than Ruffnut. He reminds me of me. I don't really want to say who Ruffnut reminds me of, but I am using someone for inspiration. I'm optimistic about getting the next chapter out much faster than the last couple ones. Oh, and have I mentioned how ecstatically happy I am that the movie is out? Because I am. Ecstatic. Ecstatically ecstatic. SO freaking happy. I'm going to go have my private happy fest. Cause after back ordering, it finally came in the mail. Yes.

* * *

Next Installment

Chapter Six: Astrid


	7. Chapter Six: Astrid

**Chapter Six: Astrid**

* * *

All around the arena, many of the villagers had packed in to watch the second most important match of the dragon training season. It was nothing compared to the champion's final test, but it was a fair number of people come to watch one event.

Ruffnut scowled.

Today was the day they'd be choosing the champion. The two top students of the dragon training class would be put in the pit with a dragon and the competition would cease once the dragon was downed by one of the contestants. Then the elder would step in and decide which of the champion hopefuls was more deserving. That thought made Ruffnut's scowled cut even deeper across her face. All this uncertainty she felt, she hated it. She hated it a lot.

It was easy to blame everything on Hiccup. Hiccup was the one who thought it would be a good idea to learn how to incapacitate dragons so they could do it in class. Hiccup was the one with the bright idea for her to be in charge of doing it. Hiccup was the one who decided she was better champion material than he was. Ruffnut didn't have the same faith in herself. The sound of the excited crowd waiting outside did nothing to relieve her doubts. They were all out there to watch her win and go on to kill the dragon like the good future dragon slayer they all expected her to become. All she was a girl peddling some instant dragon downing tricks. She liked the idea of not hurting her dragons. For them, every day she went out with them into the ring, it was a new fun game and they got to play with her. They didn't even realize that they were being used to train more vikings to kill their kind.

Only the nightmare remained wary. All the others were old, recycled training dragons, comfortable with being fed and let out for the occasional romp with the humans. They'd become damn near domestic. Nightmares were the only new dragons every year, and that was because they always needed a new one to replace the one killed in the champion's trial.

Maybe she was over thinking this, being too negative, but she didn't like this. The responsibility had all been dumped on her shoulder. In the beginning, she was doing it for her friend, doing it for Toothless, doing it to throw Astrid off their trail. And that was all good. But Ruffnut was finding that she hadn't thought through what the outcome of going along with Hiccup's crazy plan would lead to. Now she found herself saddled with having to be champion. Of course it was easy for Hiccup to say she didn't have to be the champion. Even if she wasn't the brightest torch in the tavern, she knew what throwing the match and letting Astrid win would be a terrible idea. The girl had a thirst for spilling dragon blood. If Astrid won the match and earned the favor of the elder, she'd be cheerfully on her way to killing the nightmare.

At the same time, Ruffnut winning the match meant she'd be named champion and pit against the nightmare instead. This was a no-win situation. Either Astrid had to kill the dragon or she had to kill the dragon. She'd really gotten the short end of the stick in this. She was being shoved to the forefront and being forced to make an important decision publicly. Hiccup knew she hated this kind of attention. Sure, she made an ass of herself in the past with her stupid brother and Snotlout in front of people, but that was different. Every time, she'd just been part of the crowd, part of a group doing something stupid together. In this, Ruffnut was alone. She didn't have her brother. She didn't have Hiccup.

Outside, the entire village was waiting, watching.

Out there, her father was waiting to see if she held up the family name.

* * *

Cheers erupted from the crowd as the gate lifted and Ruffnut, Astrid, and Gobber entered the pit. Astrid had her usual axe clutched in her fingers. Ruffnut had decided to forego a weapon, instead taking only a shield with her. Out in the ring, some cover had been provided for the contestants to duck behind during the match. They looked rickety, and would probably only withstand a single fire shot before they were destroyed.

"Stay out of my way Thorston," Astrid growled at her right, "I'm winning this thing."

Ruffnut would've said something witty and insulting about the girl and where she could shove her axe, but she was positive if she tried to speak, or even open her mouth, she'd probably stress vomit all over the other girl. She chose to give Astrid a fierce glare through slitted eyes. The other blonde returned the glare with a similar level of disdain. Gobber, oblivious to the tension between the two girls, just forged on with addressing the audience and setting down the ground rules. Somewhere between glaring at Astrid and listening to Gobber, she scanned the crowd, pausing once or twice. There was Tuffnut, grinning like a maniac and giving her a thumbs up. She saw her father but quickly moved her eyes past him, not wanting to think about his presence at her match. It only made her more nervous. The person she was really looking for was Hiccup. To her disappointment, she didn't spot him. She'd expected him to be here. She kind of understood if he needed to be with Toothless, or if he was feeling awkward about being around her after their last weird conversation. Things hadn't been exactly the same though the both of them were doing an admirable job pretending they were.

Before she had time to think more on Hiccup, and trivial things like their possible future as boyfriend and girlfriend, Gobber had his hand and prosthetic on the crank to release the dragon.

Showtime.

The dragon they were facing today was a gronkle. Astrid dove for one of the barricades the minute the latch was thrown and the dragon was out. Following suit, Ruffnut took cover in the opposite direction, peeking out on the side to see the dragon coming out. The gronkle came out and began to fly lazy circles around the arena looking for the humans that usually awaited it when if was let out. Once it spotted Astrid, it shot off a fireball at her. With a curse, Ruffnut ran out into the open to draw its attention. She needed to get it off Astrid's back and knocked out pronto. The gronkle swung around to face her and immediate recognition bloomed in the dragon's eyes. Its expression grew playful, or what she thought looked playful. With a roar of delight, it made a one-eighty turn in the air and wagged its tail tauntingly at her before flying away in the opposite direction.

If the situation could've allowed her, she would've felt the need to burst into laughter or tears. Obviously, the gronkle thought it was time to play a game of tag. This was possibly the worst-case scenario she could've imagined. Not only was the gronkle ignoring her, but also in its attempts to run from her, it was flying right at Astrid.

Astrid who had her axe poised to swing at it.

"No!" Ruffnut cried as she futilely tried to run at the impending collision.

It wasn't even looking where it was going. Didn't see Astrid there. The gronkle gave a shriek of pain when Astrid attacked, her axe biting, thankfully shallowly due to its tough skin, into the gronkle's foreleg. It gave a shriek of pain as it tried to fly away, and shot another burst of fire at Astrid to cover its retreat. The girl just barely dodged the fire, it had been a lucky coincidence that she'd been thrown backwards as the dragon reared back and had used the momentum to continue to roll behind another barricade.

"Astrid!" Ruffnut exclaimed, concerned for the girl.

No answering call came forth from behind the barricade. The only sound in the pit was the piteous noises the gronkle made over its injury. The crowd was too enraptured by the spectacle to make even a peep. Ruffnut decided now was the next best opportunity. Things were already going disastrously, Astrid had managed to hurt the dragon. She needed to end the match before any more damage could be made on either side. With the gronkle still distracted and flying low, she charged, hoping she could go straight for the pressure point petting she'd done to the nadder the other day. If only she'd thought ahead and brought nip with her. That would've made this whole competition a whole lot easier to begin with.

Unfortunately, the gods continued to be against her. Ruffnut was only feet away when Astrid sprung out at the beast, the course she was moving on causing her to crash into Ruffnut at the most inopportune moment. Both girls went tumbling to the ground, Ruffnut wincing as she felt her arm get nicked from her bicep to her shoulder on Astrid's axe. Her back met the ground hard and knocked all the air out of her lungs. For a second, she lay there trying to breathe again.

"_Ruffnut_!" Came a scream from above.

She didn't even realize what was going on until she was rolling sideways and another body was on top of her own. Scalding hot air breezed across her whole right side. And then she was being pulled up and thrown into a wall. Her head was still swimming from the fast paced movement. As things started to stop spinning, she snapped out of it and heard, saw, felt, Astrid hugging the wall of the barricade beside her and yelling.

"Don't expect me to save your lousy hide again Thorston! If you get in my way again, I'll let the dragon get you!"

And then Astrid was gone again, tucking and rolling out of sight to the left. Angry roars came from the sky. The gronkle was buzzing angrily about the highest part of the cage. There was nothing friendly in its demeanor anymore. It was hurt and crazed with rage and it wanted to hurt them back. It rained two fireballs downwards, though nowhere near Ruffnut's location. It was going after Astrid most likely. The girl would just not cut her a break, trying to get herself and the dragon killed. Ruffnut still had her shield on her. Though she didn't have a weapon to beat against it, she made do with a little bit of improvisation as she beat the shield into the ground. The sound produced was loud enough to jar the dragon's sensitive hearing. It bobbed unsteadily in the air a bit. Beating the shield harder and faster, the dragon finally succumbed to its disorientation. It went spiraling into down and hit the dead center of the arena floor hard.

Moving as quickly as possible, knowing she didn't have much time before either Astrid attacked again or the dragon recovered, she sprinted at the dragon, her hands flying out and reaching for the spot behind its ear and just below its chin and applied pressure. The dragon jerked, spasmed and then went limp.

The entire arena was silent for a full ten seconds before it exploded into applause.

Everything moved very fast after that. All of the adrenaline of trying not to get killed and stop the dragon wore off, and her arm stung, her back ached and she was missing her helmet...again. Oh, and her wrist, among other things, was burnt. That hurt too. She barely even acknowledged the elder naming her champion, or Astrid screaming foul, cursing her name as the rest of the village praised her. Her brother was the first down gave a tight hug and a whomp on the back. Then her own father rushed to her, hefting her onto his shoulders. Even in the apathetic haze of pain and fatigue, she was awed by the joyous, proud look on her father's face as he raised her high and said a single word of congratulations in his gruff, clipped tone.

And then she spotted a flash of red and green at the fringes of the crowd. Hiccup.

He had come.

His eyes caught hers. There was relief, gratitude, and a measure of sadness as his gaze trailed away. She followed it and swallowed dryly. The gronkle. Gobber was dragging it, hook in its giant maw, back to its cage. He gave her one last look and disappeared. She knew where he was going. She'd see him soon enough. Once she escaped her adoring fans.

* * *

"Hiccup!" Ruffnut called as she made it to gorge. "Toothless! I'm here!"

In a second, she found herself swamped in a confusion of limbs. With a blush, she realized Hiccup was holding her tightly, arms wrapped around her. On the back of her neck she felt warm huffs blowing on it, letting her know Toothless was there too.

"Hey there," she said with a hitch in her voice, trying to quash her over excitement at the hug, "Glad to see me?"

"More than glad," Hiccup whispered back, "I was really scared. The gronkle almost got you. You could've died. Again. And I wouldn't have been able to help you. Again."

Sighing, she finally hugged him back, rubbing soothing circles into his back.

"No way I'm going anywhere man. I gotta stick around and take care of you and Toothless, right? So don't worry about me."

"I can't help it. It's all my fault you were out there in the first place."

Exasperated, she shoved him away, stared him down.

"Hiccup, I'm a big girl and I can handle myself. We're all vikings here, and dealing with dangerous dragons is an occupational hazard."

"But you shouldn't even be having to fight those dragons!" Hiccup exclaimed, "They're your friends aren't they?"

"You and I both know that I had to go out there," Ruffnut said with a frown, "If Astrid had-"

"That's not what I meant." Hiccup kicked at the ground frustrated. "We shouldn't have to fight dragons. They're not bad."

Toothless sidled up beside her and nuzzled her head before licking at her bleeding shoulder. It was an interesting sensation, warm, rough, and it kind of tickled. Her frown eased up a bit at the dragon's concern.

"But they are dangerous Hiccup," Ruffnut countered, holding up her right arm for him to look at the damage done during the match. All of her untreated burns were bared for him to see.

"So what? Our village is right in slaughtering them?"

"No! I, you're twisting my words. It's wrong that we don't take time to understand them, like you and I did with Toothless. But not all dragons are the same as Toothless. Or the other ones we've met. The ones that attack our village wreak havoc on it. We kill them, but they give back as good as they get. My mom was killed in a raid. And what about you? What about your mother?"

The gorge went deathly silent. Hiccup turned away from her.

"Hiccup, wait, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought your mother into this."

"Then I guess you and I should just kill dragons then? For our mothers. Get revenge? They kill some of ours so we kill some of theirs. All that does is cause more killing. When does it end?"

"You're missing my point Hiccup," Ruffnut cried, stamping angrily on the ground, "You can't force people to accept dragons the way we have. We got over our mom's deaths, but not everyone else can get over losing someone just like that. Please, just try and understand what I'm trying to say. That peace we always wish could happen between our people and the dragons? Maybe some day, we could get it to happen. But now is too soon. Why else do you think we're hiding Toothless?"

She didn't expect him to answer her. They both knew why. And by the slump of Hiccup's shoulders, Hiccup knew she was right. Slowly, he turned around, staring her straight in the eye.

"I never got over my mom's death," he said abruptly.

"I'm so-"

He held up a hand to stop her from trying to apologize again.

"I've always missed her I just tried to keep it to myself so my dad would never notice. Things between me and my dad were never the same after she died. I threw myself into becoming the best dragon slayer because it felt like the only way we could go back to the way things were. But it never worked. And then we met Toothless, and..." He paused, taking a deep breath, "I can't stand how all these years, we've been so wrong. That my mother died for nothing. For a stupid war that never had to happen if we could've just been at peace with the dragons."

There were tears in his eyes.

"Oh man."

Then she was moving forward and pulling him into a hug. Toothless moved with her, and tried to nudge his head in to join the group hug, whining that the humans weren't paying attention to him. Ruffnut and Hiccup stepped away from each other and looked at Toothless's put out expression before bursting into laughter. In the moment, Ruffnut knew it was okay again. She and Hiccup argued before, but this time was the most intense argument they'd ever had, and in the duration of it, it had felt like it could've been the end of their friendship. But she could never be mad at Hiccup when he was looking at her all watery like that and talking about missing his mother. And she was glad he wasn't mad at her for dragging his mother into their argument. It had been wrong of her to do so. Her eyes trailed across Hiccup's face, his eyes closed and cheeks flushed with mirth. It was okay. She pulled him back in for a hug, this time including their disgruntled dragon.

"What in Hel's name?"

Panicked, Ruffnut's head whipped around to see where the unwelcome voice had come from. Bright blue stared back in horrified. Standing there only a couple of feet away was...

Astrid.

Astrid had followed her.

Moving faster than she ever had in her entire life, Ruffnut released Hiccup and Toothless and tackled the girl before she even thought of doing anything. No. No no no no no no. Astrid couldn't find out. They were supposed to keep Toothless hidden and how she'd seen him and his safety was compromised. It was done. Finished. They were going to lose Toothless. The girl tried to wriggle and fight her way out from beneath her. Ruffnut through all of her weight into holding her down.

"_I knew it!_" Astrid screamed, "I knew there was something up with you and Haddock. There's no way anyone could've taken down a dragon the way you two could. Cheap tricks. Consorting with dragons!"

Suddenly, Ruffnut felt herself being dragged off of the other girl.

"Tuffnut!" she heard Astrid wheeze out.

All struggle ceased as Ruffnut looked at the person holding her back. It was indeed her twin, staring back at her with undecipherable emotions playing out across his face. Oh gods, Tuffnut knew too. In front of them, Astrid was pulling herself to her feet.

"You two," she hissed, "Are going to be in so much trouble once I bring this back to the chief and the elder!"

And then Astrid was running for the exit of the gorge.

"Hiccup!" Ruffnut cried. The boy was looking back and forth between her and Tuffnut and the fleeing Astrid conflicted over what he should do. "I'll be fine! Go after her! Take Toothless and go after her!"

Hesitating for a moment, he gave a nod, swiftly mounted Toothless and took off in the direction Astrid went. That left her alone with Tuffnut. His grip on her had already grown weak. She shook him off and put some distance between the two of them before turning to face him. What she would give right at this moment to read her twin's mind. It was bad that Astrid knew. Now Tuffnut did as well. It was unpredictable how he felt about all of this. Tuffnut was no where near the dragon killing fanatic wannabe Astrid made herself out to be, but Tuffnut had always been under pressure from their father to be the perfect slayer. Just what did he think about this? What did he think about her?

"Tuffnut, I can explain."

"Save it Ruff," Tuffnut said cutting her off, "So this is what you and Haddock have been up to when you've been disappearing?" He gestured all around at the gorge.

"Yes," Ruffnut answered shamefacedly.

"You know, I thought at first it was just that you were into the kid. I didn't go poking into your business. It's not my say who you go hooking up with. Although I always thought you were going to end up with Snotlout some day."

Ruffnut couldn't help but pull a face.

"Ew! Gods Tuffnut, Snotlout, really?"

"Well, who else could it have been?" Tuffnut argued, "You hate, well, hated Haddock. And Fishlegs? Enough said. Really, what else could I have thought?"

"How about you stop thinking then! Your small brain obviously shouldn't be over worked!" Ruffnut sniped.

"As if you should be talking about brains! You're the crazy one running around with dragons and Haddock!"

"Don't call me crazy, halfwit!"

"Aw, did I hurt your crazy feelings?"

"Why I oughta!" Ruffnut exclaimed, taking a couple steps forward, raising her fist to clobber her brother.

And then she stopped and looked down at her fist awkwardly. She'd gotten so caught up in the old routine of fighting with Tuffnut, she'd forgotten that Tuffnut had just seen her, Hiccup and Toothless. Glancing back up at Tuffnut, she saw he'd been thinking the same thing. They'd both been caught up in it.

"Are you going to say anything about Toothless?"

"Toothless?" He shook his head at the name. "Should I?"

Her glare told him she wasn't satisfied with his answer.

"Well, I know I should. We are vikings after all. Hanging out with dragons isn't really our MO." He laughed at his own joke, even though she didn't. "But I don't think I want to. I saw Haddock there, riding the dragon. Never thought I'd see the day a viking could ride a dragon. It was pretty wicked awesome looking though. If...If I don't say anything, could you guys teach me how to ride one too?"

Shocked at his words, Ruffnut let her jaw drop.

"You want to ride Toothless?"

"What?" Tuffnut snapped, "It could be cool."

"It is..." Ruffnut finally said, "Flying, I mean. So you really won't say anything?"

"Yeah." His expression became serious again. "Is Astrid going to be alright? With Haddock and your dragon?"

"Hiccup wouldn't hurt her. And he wouldn't let Toothless hurt her either," Ruffnut reassured him, "He's probably out there trying to convince her dragons aren't so bad, giving her a go at riding Toothless. Hopefully it works."

"What?" Tuffnut exclaimed, "She gets a ride first and I don't?"

"Well all things considered, you're taking the me and Hiccup hanging out with a dragon and dragons aren't all evil thing pretty well. We need to give her a crash course "

"It's not fair..." he pouted.

"Life seldom is, brother mine," she quipped, shoving him hard enough to send him toppling to the ground and landing on his butt. He glared at her.

"You're dead!"

"Yeah, sure."

She rolled her eyes but turned to run. It wasn't fast enough because his hand had already snaked out and grabbed her around the ankle. Ruffnut went falling face first and found herself eating dirt. Wonderful. She lifted her head and spat, trying to get the taste out of her mouth. Growling, she bared her teeth menacingly at him. It didn't achieve the desired effect. Tuffnut was guffawing at her.

"Your teeth! Your teeth are black!"

Shutting her mouth, she desperately tried to swipe her tongue across her teeth to wipe away the dirt. It tasted gross.

"Black teeth, black teeth!"

"Shut up!" she snarled at her brother, swatting at him.

He continued to laugh, so hard that soon he was crying. Every time he opened his eyes to look at her, his laughter started anew. Grumbling to herself, she went to the water and started scooping handfuls of water into her mouth to try and swish it out. After a couple goes at it, she checked her reflection and was satisfied to see dirtless teeth reflected back up at her. Scowling at Tuffnut, she saw him on his stomach huffing and trying to regain his breath from laughing so hard. Stalking over, she kicked him in the leg, enjoying the yelp he gave at it. Her leg came back to give another, but Tuffnut was rolling over and putting his hands up in surrender.

"Come on! Stop already. You win!"

"Of course I win. I always do."

"I missed hanging out with you," Tuffnut admitted after a second.

"I did too."

"Why didn't you tell me about Toothless?"

"I wasn't sure how you'd react."

"Oh really?" he snorted, "Maybe you just wanted to keep the dragon all to yourself." Then he smirked. "Or maybe you just wanted Haddock all to yourself?"

The truce was off and Ruffnut was kicking him again and again.

"Ouch, ow, stop it! Oh, I'm hurt! I am very much hurt!"

It was Ruffnut's turn to double over at her twin's stupidity. Once she calmed herself, she held out a hand to Tuffnut.

"Let's go home."

"Shouldn't we ah, wait for Haddock and, uh, Astrid?"

"You really want to wait? They'll get home when they get home. I promise, Astrid will be fine." She peered at him. "You just want to wait to see Toothless don't you?"

His unabashed grin was all the answer she needed.

"Typical. You'll get your chance some time."

"Fine," he grumbled, taking her hand, "So what breed of dragon is Toothless? I don't recognize it. I bet that nerd Fishlegs probably would..."

"Night Fury."

"No way!" Tuffnut exclaimed as they walked, "Are you serious? You two bagged a Night Fury?"

"Yup."

"I _have_ to ride that dragon. _Have to_. "

"Hey, so what was with you showing up with Astrid, did you two come together?"

"Uh..."

"Don't tell me!"

"No! It was just a coincidence!"

"I'm _sure_..."

"Shut up Ruff."

"You're _blushing_..."

"I'm ignoring you Ruff."

"You know, I'd totally be okay with it. Seriously, go ask her out."

"But you hate her! Wait, I'm not even hearing you talk right now. Happy thoughts...I'm going to fly on a Night Fury. Going to fly on a Night Fury. La la la la la la!"

Soon, the gorge was empty, and the sounds of the siblings antics began to die away. The sun went down, and it would be hours before a boy, a girl and a dragon returned.

* * *

**Chapter Six: Astrid** - End

* * *

AN: I am so sorry I'm late. Like, more than a week. You can stone me to death. You're totally in your rights. Ugh. I've just been distracted by other projects. But I think this might be the best chapter so far. I feel really good about it. I had the movie on loop and was listening to "Happy Days Are Here Again/Get Happy" while writing it. I got some action in, some Ruffup fighting and fluff, some cute Toothless, some Astrid and even some Tuffnut! Pretty good for a day of writing.

* * *

Next Installment

Chapter Seven: The Test


	8. Chapter Seven: The Test

**Chapter Seven: The Test**

* * *

After getting back from the nest, the first thing on Hiccup's mind was finding Ruffnut. His thoughts were a whirl of confusion in light of what the visit had revealed. It was so massive, the fact that he, Astrid, and Toothless were almost eaten alive back there didn't seem important at all. Or maybe he was still so thrown by everything that happened that his mind was subconsciously pushing the near death experience to the back so he didn't melt down right then and there. He rushed through farewells with Astrid and Toothless. There was only so much more time till morning and this discovery couldn't wait until after the test. In fact, it could probably completely change everything based on how Ruffnut would use the information. She had to do something about it, he knew she would.

As he stole silently through the village, he prayed his dad hadn't bothered checking up on him this night. Though his dad had been really great, if a little awkward, as of late, in respecting his new found independence, his dad had become fond of trying to make small talk about training and marriage proposals. Hiccup had found he could stomach neither around his dad, for different reasons. Either way, he just hoped his dad wasn't out searching for him or anything. And he hoped no one stopped him on his way to Ruffnut. After several minutes, it seemed to him as if the gods were on his side. He'd made it to Ruffnut's without any incident. Letting himself in through the back entrance, he snuck to over to where her room was. On his way, he was positive he tripped over a helmet, or a weapon or two before he finally made it.

She lay on her sleeping cot, buried under a pile of furs. Her body was turned away from him and huddled against the wall. He'd watched her sleep before, but this was different. At the gorge with Toothless, they'd fall asleep in the grass, in the warm sun, their heads pillowed on their dragon. Ruffnut would have her arms thrown akimbo, snoring softly in contentment, and dead to the world. Seeing her sleeping here seemed very odd. This was her home, her room, her bed, but nothing about it seemed very lived in. She looked so cold and out of place in this room that said nothing about her. Everything was too neat and lacked anything said this was where she lived, where she slept, expect for her lying there on the bed. It was so unlike his room which had drawings tacked to every inch of wall and random things lying around on the floor.

Uncomfortable with how her room made him feel, he moved forward to her and shook her through the enormous lump of furs.

"Go away Tuffnut." He heard her say sleepily. "M'fine. M'not having a n'tmare. Go back t'bed."

"Ruff," he said quietly to her as he filed away her unconscious mumblings for later consideration, "Come on, wake up."

Slowly, her head emerged fully, and she craned her neck backwards to peer at the person disturbing her sleep. She snapped to awareness immediately.

"Hiccup!" she exclaimed, though not to loudly. She sat up letting the furs fall to her waist, "What are you doing here?" Her eyes sharpened. "What happened? Astrid, did she...?"

"She isn't going to tell anyone," he rushed to assure her. He thought hard for a second. "Tuffnut?"

"He won't either." She smirked a little. "He is threatening blackmail if he doesn't get to have a ride on Toothless, though I'm positive he would go through with it."

"That's good."

"So what's up?" Ruffnut asked, crossing her legs under the covers and pulling one of them around her shoulders. She offered one to Hiccup but he declined. He was plenty warm from the run he'd made from the Toothless all the way here.

"Astrid and I discovered something when we were out on Toothless."

Ruffnut's eyes narrowed the slightest.

"Yeah? Don't leave me hanging here."

"It had just started getting dark and we were about to head home when Toothless flew us into some heavy fog and got us pulled into an airborne clan of dragons."

Narrowed eyes went impossibly wide.

"Did you get attacked?" she asked, "Are you alright?" She looked him over hurriedly. "You look alright." Then she grew panicked. "Oh gods, is Toothless alright?" There was a pause. "Is Astrid alright?" She asked like it was an after thought to be concerned for the other girl's well-being.

"They're fine, Ruff, we're all fine."

"So what is it then?" She frowned. "Not that I'm not glad to see you came out of it alive and whole, but I seriously doubt you came just to tell me about that."

"We found the dragon's nest."

"You what?" she shrieked.

"Shh!" he hissed, "Do you want your dad or your brother coming in here right now?"

"Not particularly," she drawled, pulling another fur around herself.

"Than keep it down!"

"How do you expect me to be calm when you found the dragon's nest?" she asked quietly, "That's ginormous news. What was it like?"

"Like nothing we've ever imagined," he admitted. And then he remembered what about the dragon's nest had him coming her to speak to her, "Ruff, they have a queen."

"A queen?" Ruffnut asked, not understanding what he meant.

"There's a dragon there, bigger than anything any Viking has ever seen before," Hiccup told her, remembering in frightening detail what little he saw of the terrifying creature that had almost eaten him, "All of the other dragons are afraid of it. When they raid villages and pillage for food, they're just bringing it back to feed that... that thing." He cringed remembering more details of the night. "If they don't bring back enough, it starts eating them."

They sat for several minutes in contemplative silence.

"So, it's kind of like the big bad boss, and they have to do what it says or they get the good ole," she made a chopping motion at her neck, "Right?"

"_Pre_-tty much. Just imagine what the rest of the village would think if they knew?"

"I don't know." She scowled. "I don't see it going over very well.

"You need to do something Ruff," Hiccup said before he could stop himself.

"Why me?" she demanded, her expression resistant.

"I mean..." The boy tried to bring his thoughts together. "You're the champion. You hold sway in the village now. Everyone will be gathered to see you kill the last dragon. That's your best opportunity to tell them. Make them understand what we know."

"Hiccup..." Her voice sounded exasperated, "We've talked about this."

"I'm not kidding Ruff. This is it. We won't get a chance like this ever again. And besides, it's not like you're going out there to kill that dragon. You might as well tell them why." The girl wrapped in furs gave him an uncertain look. "Please just think about this."

"I'll try," she finally said, getting a grin out of him, "It's bad enough that I already plan to refuse to fight Hiccup. I hope you understand what you're asking me to do."

"If something happens, I'll save you," he said, deadly serious, "I'll get Toothless, rescue you, and we'll leave the village for good." He reached forward and took one of her hands and clasped it, palms together and hooking thumbs. "I promise."

There was awe and gratitude in her slack jawed expression. Her face was stuck like that for a couple of minutes, minutes that felt like eternity, before she could finally compose herself and let a devious smirk curl the edges of her lips.

"Run away together eh?" Eyebrows arched. "Kind of scandalous don't you think?"

He flushed with embarrassment.

"Can you imagine the rumors that would fly around about us after we left?"

"I don't care!" he exclaimed.

"Look whose being loud now," Ruffnut teased, and he could feel the heat creeping down his neck and his heartbeat pounding in his ears. She gave him another smirk before falling onto her back and rolling over so she assumed her original sleeping position before he'd come to speak with her. "Go home Haddock. It's late and I want to get some sleep before my big day tomorrow." She turned her head so she could catch his eyes. "See you in the morning."

"Yeah," he said.

Hesitantly, he placed a hand on the lump of furs where he was positive her shoulder should be and let it sit there. He didn't get up and leave immediately, opting instead to stay and wait until she drifted off again. It didn't take long, and it was with some measure of pleasure he noticed she'd allowed herself to relax into a more comfortable, stretched out position. Fetal position didn't suit her very much. Making sure she was asleep one last time, he leaned over close to where her head was.

"Sweet dreams," he whispered to her and finally departed.

* * *

Bright and early the next day, Hiccup was exhausted and on edge as he sat in the competitor's cage waiting for Ruffnut to show up. His father had already commenced his speech from where he stood, way above the pit. Hiccup listened to it on and off, but couldn't really get into it, even if it was his father singing his best friend's praises. It was nice to hear Ruffnut be praised, but it fell flat on his ears. They all thought Ruffnut to be the most skilled, and ruthless dragon slayer. She wasn't. Today, she was going to march out there and disappoint them. Try and change their comfortable black and white world where dragons were the enemy and the Vikings had to fight them. He prayed that they would listen to her.

Glancing to his right, he saw Astrid and Tuffnut propped up against the wall next to him. They'd unexpectedly decided to wait with him and give their support to Ruffnut as well. It was amazing to think that in the beginning, it had just been him and Ruffnut and now there was also Astrid and Tuffnut in on it as well. He honestly didn't know what to think about it. On the one hand, more allies was always a good thing. And it gave him hope that others could be convinced like they had. Astrid had been so resistant at first, and now, she stood chatting indulgently with an overenthusiastic Tuffnut about which dragon they would ride if they had to choose.

Then there was the other part of him that didn't like that they knew. It was selfish and childish of him. It wasn't as much Astrid, though, as it was Tuffnut. Gods, he was jealous of her brother. When it was just him and her, it was their secret that kept them together. Deep down, he was afraid that now that Tuffnut knew, Ruffnut start hanging out with him more. Afraid that now that they weren't the only ones in on the secret, Ruffnut might not deem him worth her time anymore. Tuffnut was her twin after all.

Looking away from Tuffnut and Astrid, he sighed in self-disgust. Ruffnut was always telling him to get over his insecurities and here he was letting it run rampant over Tuffnut joining their group. It was making him doubt Ruffnut when he had no business doing so. She'd proved time and time again that she'd stick with him to the end. From day one, she'd stayed by him, stuck up for him against Astrid, Snotlout and Tuffnut, and been his friend. Vikings liked to talk a whole lot about honor, but seldom did he ever see them live up to the talk. He'd never put much stock in the worth of honor. Ruffnut did though. What she said she'd do, she'd do in that bullheaded, no nonsense way she did. It was this quality that made him admire her so much.

"Hey Haddock."

He turned to face Tuffnut, mentally pulling a face at how he'd just been thinking about the blond and his sister not two seconds ago.

"Don't worry man," the taller boy said, "She'll be here soon. She was just dragging her feet a little getting ready." He snickered. "She threw her helmet at me when I tried to get her to hurry up. Might've been because of the bucket of water I dumped on her to wake her up."

This got him a smack upside the head from Astrid.

"You don't rush girls when they're preparing for big events," she scolded him, "Besides, we're allowed to be fashionably late."

"But that's stupid," Tuffnut complained.

He got slapped again.

As strange as the sight of Astrid and Tuffnut getting along, well, sort of getting along, was, Hiccup was tremendously glad it wasn't him getting smacked around by the vikingette. He already had one of his own to hit him when it was necessary. Having another would be height of masochism.

"Wow. Looks like I've got myself a set of groupies."

Heads turned as they went to see who had spoken. There was Ruffnut, walking down the incline of the competitor's area. He pushed himself off the wall just as Tuffnut and Astrid did and ambled over to her.

"Hey," Hiccup greeted, suddenly feeling nervous though he couldn't discern the exact reason why, "We were waiting for you."

"I can see that," she commented, looking at all three of them before her eyes stopped on Astrid, "So you're cool with our little dragon hugging club, huh?" Ruffnut gave her a suspicious glare. "Hiccup says you're on the up and up but I'm not completely convinced."

Astrid actually rolled her eyes at Ruffnut.

"Yes, for Odin's sake. I don't see you giving Tuffnut the third degree."

"He knows better than to cross me." Tuffnut snickered, earning himself a fierce glare from his twin that had him shutting up and scuttling away in a second. "Usually."

A moment of tense silence passed between the girls. Hiccup and Tuffnut awkwardly tried to be as unobtrusive as possible, so as to not draw either female's ire. For his part, Tuffnut was doing an admirable job melding back into the wall. All Hiccup could really do was stand still and hold his breath and hope this blew over before he needed air. Just was he was about to give into his human need take breath, the glaring contest was ended by the sound of someone approaching, giving off a loud step, clunk, step, clunk. There stood Gobber, an impatient scowl on his face. His weight was shifted onto his peg and he was tapping his foot irritably.

"There's a test to be done and here ye kids are havin' social time," he grouched. He looked to Ruffnut, "Ye best be gettin' yerself out there lassie."

Out of the corner of his eye, Hiccup watched her give the blacksmith a tight nod. She strode forward confidently (or at least what looked confident to Hiccup) only to stop short at the raised gate. Spinning suddenly on her heel, she marched right back over to Hiccup. He opened his mouth to ask if there was something wrong, something she needed. That was as far as he got. His train of thought was derailed when she thrust her arm out, curling her hand around the nape of his neck and fisting the hair that was there.

All brain function ceased when he found himself being yanked forward into an aggressive kiss.

Her lips met his with a bruising force. His mouth, already open, was completely vulnerable to her assault. There was no stopping her plundering it thoroughly. Truthfully, he definitely probably didn't want to stop her. His arms, which had come up in an attempt to flail had already fallen back to his sides, limp and unresisting. Just as he was about to get his act together and kiss back, she was already pulling away. It left him dazed, confused, and feeling a little cheated. He ran his tongue around the contours of his mouth to try and figure out all of the dizzying sensations she left behind in it. He saw her start to back away, and caught her eyes, twinkling mischievously, with his own.

"For luck," she explained when she saw the look he was giving her, grinning wide and unrepentant.

Then she whipped around and briskly walked in the opposite direction.

"Oi!" he heard Tuffnut yell indignantly from behind him, "You kissed my sister!"

"Did you even watch the same kiss I did? Because from here it looked like you sister just violated Hiccup," Astrid snarked.

And violated Hiccup felt. Just... in a good kind of way.

"Teenagers," Gobber muttered under his breath, "The whole lot of ye should be heading up so you can watch the battle."

"Um..." Hiccup didn't really want to go though. If things got messy, he wanted to be close.

"We're fine here Gobber," Astrid ended up saying for him, "This is as good a place as any to watch from."

Gobber gave them all a long suffering look before hobbling his way back out. The minute he was gone, all three preteens pasted themselves against the gated entrance of the pit. In the exact center of the arena, Ruffnut stood at attention, back to them and facing his father who was seated in his stone throne, staring back at her with a look of grim respect. On one side was the village elder, gripping her large staff and looking down upon her expectantly. At his other side, he recognized Tuffnut Sr. who was having a harder time trying to seem indifferent because he was given away by the bright excited gleam in his eyes and the way his hands clenched and unclenched. Hiccup could imagine if the man had less self control, he'd probably be hooting and hollering like some of the other more exuberant villagers who had arrived for the spectacle.

"Ruffnut! Ruffnut! Ruffnut! Ruffnut!"

The cheers were coming loud and fast now. They simply intensified when she moved to the weapons rack. When she took only a shield, the cheers immediately hushed to uncomprehending whispers. Holding up one arm and waving it, she signaled to the Viking manning the crank that she was ready for the dragon. For the longest couple of minutes, the Viking didn't do what she wanted, unsure. Was she insane? Facing a dragon with nothing but a shield was foolhardy with a side of recklessly suicidal. It was the kind of thing you could get away with on your first day of dragon training with the small fries. What lurked behind that door waiting to be unleashed...

It was no small fry.

Not at all.

Looking to Stoic, all the Viking got was a nod. So he started to work the lever, shaking his head and hoping the wisp of the girl in the ring had a plan. It took less than a minute. Before the restraining jam was fully lifted, the doors were flung open in a blast of molten fire and a flash of scales.

It took Hiccup's breath away, stopped his heart.

Of all of the breeds of dragons he'd encountered, bar the monster he'd seen the night previous, nightmares had always been the dragon that terrified him most. Out of the countless times he'd almost been killed by a dragon, it was usually a nightmare in pursuit while he ran and screamed like a little girl. With all of their sharp teeth and claws, their nasty disposition, oh, and their habit of lighting themselves on fire? There was little friendly or huggable about a nightmare.

It burst out of its prison, crawling across the walls, circling, strangely looking both the part of a predator looking for prey and a cornered animal searching for escape. Spitting viscous fire and roaring in rage that it found no weak spot in its cage to use, it dropped back down to the ground coming face to face with Ruffnut, who had not moved once from the spot where she'd been standing. She held her ground as the nightmare came at her slowly, menacingly.

For a moment, Hiccup forgot about Toothless, forgot about how not all dragons were evil, and how meaningless the war was. That was his best friend, a friend he could admit in the privacy of his own mind he cared for as more than just friends, unarmed in the ring with a nightmare getting ready to attack her. If this went bad, and there was a high likelihood it would, that dragon could crush her before someone even lifted a finger to help her. He wanted to call to her and tell her to come back, to give it up and that he was stupid for even asking her to do it. With a sinking feeling, he knew that even if he tried, she wouldn't. She was too far in now.

When the dragon came to a halt only an arm's length away from the girl, the entire crowd went silent in anticipation of what would happen next. All of them could feel as if they were baring witness to something big, something life changing. Entranced, they as well as Hiccup, Tuffnut and Astrid, watched in wonder as Ruffnut reached out and put a hand on the dragon's snout. The large beast snuffed hesitantly, suspiciously, at her hand. Some of the women shrieked from above as the snout moved up her arm and when opened its maw, believing it was preparing to eat her. Even Tuffnut and Astrid went tense beside Hiccup, white knuckled hands tightly holding the bars in front of them.

Instead of taking a bite from her, its long forked tongue snaked out from its terrifyingly abyss-like mouth and ran from her neck, all the way up the side of her face.

"Ew!" the girl sputtered, backing away a couple of steps.

The dragon looked nonplussed about her disgusted, settling down on its haunches and thoughtfully smacked its mouth.

Its behavior threw even Hiccup who was used to his own strange dragon's antics.

"What are you doing dawdling like that girl?" came an angry shout from above came, "It's distracted! Kill it!"

This seemed to anger the dragon, because it went from docile to angrily snarling in the direction the shout had come from.

"No!" Ruffnut cried, going to the dragon's side. She placed both hands on its foreleg. "He didn't mean it. I'm not going to kill you, I'm going to help you," she soothed.

Just as the dragon seemed to be listening to her, ready to stand down once more, a rain of stones came. Some hit the dragon, enraging it. One stone struck Ruffnut on the back of the head, causing her to pitch forward into the nightmare. Hiccup and Tuffnut yelled as one when they saw her go down. Hiccup barely registered Astrid grabbing an axe off the wall and wedging it under the gate in an attempt to get it open and save her. Back in the ring, the nightmare gave a monstrous roar at the sight of her falling at its feet clutching her head. It moved forward till it was standing over her, almost protectively, and began to spew fire at all other Vikings in sight.

It forced all three of the teens who'd been trying to get inside to have to abandon their rescue endeavor when the gate was bathed in flame.

"No," Hiccup said, "No no no no no!"

He could no longer see into the ring. See if Ruffnut was hurt, alive, in danger. He turned and ran toward the other exit, hoping to maybe get to go around and up to the higher levels. If he had to, he'd jump down from the audience level to get to her. Tuffnut and Astrid were at his back following him as he went. As they reached the crowds and pushed their way to the front of them, he looked down with initial relief to see the dragon had been restrained, with at least one Viking to every appendage. His eyes continued sweeping the scene.

Where was Ruffnut?

And then he spotted his blonde friend.

Relief began to slip away as he looked harder at just what he was seeing.

Ruffnut was being restrained by her father, who had both her arms held roughly behind her back. She was swearing at the Vikings holding down the dragon.

"Let go of me!" she screamed shrilly, kicking out viciously.

Hiccup's heart plummeted when he saw his own father walk over to her, his posture all intimidating authority figure. He looked down upon the girl with an expression of disgust.

"Witch," he stated venomously.

"I'm no witch!" Ruffnut hissed at him.

"Then how do you explain the devil doing what you wanted?"

"They're not evil!"

His expression grew stormier. He looked up at Tuffnut Sr., and allowed some regret and sympathy leak into his eyes. The man met his gaze stonily.

"Take her to the meeting hall," Stoic ordered, "Lock her in. I'll be down soon to take care of her."

He received a nod.

"And gag her," he added, "Else she might try to bewitch you."

Ruffnut shrieked indignantly as her own father obediently did as his chieftain ordered. They were soon muffled by the strap of leather tied around the lower part of her face. Hiccup watched helplessly as she was dragged away for a minute before pushing his way back out of the crowd.

"Where are you going?" Astrid demanded, following him.

* * *

The boy pushed the doors of the meeting hall open as hard as he could. It had taken forever, but thanks to Astrid, the guards at the door were finally distracted. That gave him and Tuffnut the window to get into the meeting hall. Inside, Ruffnut was seated in a chair, glaring defiantly up at his father and Tuffnut Sr.

"Dad!" he exclaimed, "Stop, she's not a witch!"

Ruffnut sat up a little straighter when she saw him.

"Son, it's alright," his father said to him calmly, "You're under her thrall."

"Dad! You're not listening to me, Ruffnut's not a witch!"

"We saw it with our own eyes," Tuffnut Sr. said darkly, "How the dragon bent to her will. It's the dark arts of _seidr_." *

"Come on," Tuffnut cut in, "You seriously can't believe Ruffnut's into that kind of stuff!"

"You will be quiet boy!" the blond man thundered and all of the teens present shrunk at the sound.

"What she did in the ring in front of the entire village was proof," Stoic said, "Consorting with the enemy, it's treason."

"They are not the enemy!" Hiccup near screamed in frustration, "Dad, the dragons, they raid us because they have to! If they don't bring enough food back, they'll be eaten themselves." His eyes grew haunted. "There's something else on their island. It's a dragon like..."

"They're island?" his father interrupted, "So you've been to the nest?"

Hiccup's eyes widened, "Did I say nest?"

"How did you find it?" the red haired Viking demanded, no longer patient with him.

"What? No, I didn't," Hiccup denied, "Only dragons can find the island. But Ruffnut-"

But his father wasn't listening to him anymore, brushing past him and pulling Ruffnut up by the elbow.

"What are you doing with my sister?" Tuffnut yelled, getting ready to step forward and defend her.

Stoic looked back at Hiccup.

"You said only dragons can find the island?" Hiccup looked into his father's eyes and saw a gleam there that he reminded him too much of when he got a plan for building a new weapon. "Then we'll take a dragon and we'll bring its witch," he tugged at her elbow again for emphasis, "to make sure it cooperates."

"You can't be serious..."

"This is the best shot we have for wiping them out," Stoic said, putting a hand on Hiccup's shoulder, "Thank you son, I know your mind's been addled, but you've done your share."

"You can't do this!" the boy exploded, "You don't know what you're up against. It's like nothing you've ever seen."

Squeezing his shoulder in what was probably meant to be comforting gesture but was nothing of the sort, his father started walking away, Tuffnut Sr. going with him. He looked at Ruffnut helplessly. Her eyes mirrored the way he felt.

"Dad please. I promise you, you can't win this one!" Hiccup yelled at his father's back, "You'll just get killed and drag everyone you take down with you! Please, just, just don't take Ruffnut. Don't hurt her." He was ignored. Angrily, he ran forward and tried to pull Ruffnut back. As if he was just a measly fly, his father swatted him away. He stumbled back into Tuffnut. "For once in your life would you just listen to me?"

Stoic paused at the door and glanced back at his son.

"The girl won't be harmed," Stoic promised reluctantly, "But after we have accomplished our siege, she'll be cast out and never allowed to return." He turned away from him again. "It's for your own good. She's not the one for you."

And then both adults disappeared with Ruffnut. Both he and Tuffnut could here distant echoes of orders to prepare the ships to the take off. For the first time in his entire life, Hiccup felt hatred towards his father. He'd never taken him seriously, never understood him, and never listened to him. But he'd always known his father cared and that's what helped him to get over the inadequacy and worthlessness he made him feel. This time though, when he really needed his father to listen to him, he didn't.

This time, he couldn't forgive his father. Not when Ruffnut's life was at jeopardy.

"What are we going to do?" Tuffnut demanded, "If what you said's right, Ruffnut's gonna get killed! We've gotta save her."

"And we will," Hiccup said resolutely, as he headed for the doors, "Go get Astrid and the others and bring them to the training ring."

"What? Why?"

"I have a plan and we're going to need them."

"What about you?" Tuffnut asked questioningly.

"I'm gonna go get Toothless."

* * *

**Chapter Seven: The Test** - End

* * *

AN: Oh man. This is so late. Super late. I honestly have no excuse beyond not really knowing how to write it. I had a plan, and then threw it out. Two thirds of this chapter were planned in the last two days and written today. Sigh. But I feel like I did it the way I wanted to. I've been really trying to make an effort to make this different than just a retelling of the movie with a throw in Ruffnut. Someone wrote me a review about how her stronger prescence in this story should create ripples in the original plot. And I totally agreed. Ruffnut being the champion had been written in on a whim. Ruffnut being taken instead of Toothless is the same. In a way, he still had his best friend taken from him. Just not his dragon. And...

I just really enjoyed writing different responses. Astrid, Tuffnut, Stoic and Tuffnut Sr. There's something wonderful about developing side characters!

Oh, and of course, a little more on the romance thing, more blatant and not just maybe... So hopefully with all of that, you guys enjoyed this chapter.

* seidr: From my understanding, seidr is a type of Norse magic. Usually women practiced it, but some men did (even Odin, though he was denounced as "unmanly" for it by Loki). Things one could do with the practice were divination, soul travel, shapeshifting, necromancy, and cursing. For the purposes of this story, the Vikings of Berk are aware but a bit mistrustful of seidr. Their disliking for it fits their credo of being resistant to changes and understanding new things. As well as being manly. I imagine magic would seem cowardly to them.

* * *

Next Installment:

Chapter Eight: Into the Ocean


	9. Chapter Eight: Into the Ocean

**Chapter Eight: Into the Ocean**

* * *

Her shoulders hung low, the heavy weight of the manacles clapped around her wrists pulling her entire upper body down. By now, she would've complained, but her mouth was occupied as well, still bound by the same leather strap her own father had put on her.

She growled at the thought of it.

A heavy feeling of resentment, darker and deeper than she'd ever felt before, settled into her chest. She always related it to her father. Occasionally Astrid, but frankly, Astrid couldn't even begin to touch the depth of this feeling. Ruffnut liked to talk about how much she hated the other girl for being snobby, and prettier, and more perfect than her, but at the end of the day, Astrid didn't matter. Astrid was just some stupid girl. Besides, now that she'd joined Team Dragon Huggers, and would quite possibly be her sister-in-law some day (and no longer competition for Hiccup), Ruffnut knew she'd have to let go of her petty dislike of the other girl sooner or later.

Might as well become a better person now, considering she was sailing to her death.

Part of her couldn't really believe that this was happening. That her own father had denounced her as a witch and traitor. He'd helped bind her, and personally walked her onto the ship. She'd never had an easy relationship with her father, but she'd always believed that maybe somewhere, deep down, he loved her. That she wasn't expendable, or worse, just a bargaining chip for a political marriage some time down the road. She'd never let Tuffnut on to how concerned about her future she'd been. He'd had his own worries being the male heir of the Thorstons.

It was almost funny looking back now on the fact that she used to be worried that she'd be forced into a union with Hiccup. Being married to Hiccup seemed like such an awful fate back then. She'd understood that the match would be advantageous because he was the son of the chief, but cringed at the idea of ending up with someone so inept at being a Viking. Watching him in action causing property damage and injuring himself every time he picked up a weapon was just embarrassing. Her small bit of humor died off when she remembered how terrible a person she used to be to her now best friend. She wondered why she'd spent so long putting him down when they could've been friends sooner. There were times in her childhood where she could've used someone like Hiccup to turn to. And after finding out about his mother, she could've been there to help him as well.

Why did it take finding a dragon in a gorge to make her realize what a wonderful person she'd been missing for so long in her life?

Tired of thinking about her regrets, she tried to think about something else. She was quickly given a subject to ponder when her eyes landed upon her fellow prisoner. Due to Hiccup's unfortunate slip of the tongue, his father had discovered the key to finding the dragon's nest was to have a dragon lead the way. The nightmare she'd faced in the ring was the one they decided to bring because they figured the threat against her life would hold more sway over its willingness to cooperate. That, in and of itself, was a pretty laughable conclusion for them to have come to. If she were a dragon supposedly under the thrall of some human witch, she wouldn't give a troll's buttock if the witch were harmed. If the witch died, she'd be free. Besides, she wasn't very familiar with this dragon out of all of the ones kept captive. Why should it care about her?

Except.

Ruffnut remembered how enraged it had been in the arena when the spectators had actually started throwing rocks at them. At first, she'd assumed it had just been angry some stupid people were throwing rocks at it. But if she was really being honest, it's reaction to being pelted by rocks had paled in comparison to the one it had when she'd been downed by a rock herself.

Just because she hung out with dragons a lot, didn't mean she really understood much about the beasts. Hiccup was the one who got them and how they thought, understood why they did what they did. She just followed his lead for the most part with fumbling attempts at being friendly and fish on hand. It was amazing that she had gotten as far as she did with Toothless. If it had been another dragon with a less patient and more vicious disposition, she would've gotten not only herself but also Hiccup killed.

She kicked out at whatever was closest, hissing into her gag as it came into contact with something hard, and unforgiving. Her leg jerked back as a jolt of pain lanced back up her foot. If only she could speak, she'd be cussing out these idiot adults instead of making stupid muffled angry noises in the back of her throat like a dying animal. She wasn't a gods be damned animal. They wanted a witch? They'd see the minute they came close. Just because she couldn't scream or bite, didn't mean she couldn't kick or head butt or shoulder them where it would hurt most. Even bound, Ruffnut could at least give one person a decent thrashing.

* * *

After working herself up several times over, she eventually had passed out from sheer exhaustion and boredom.

Being held captive wasn't made to be a fun experience. She'd just woken up again and now she was bored and restless. Unfortunately, there wasn't much she could do, being tied up and gagged and all. She could throw another hissy fit, but what was that going to get her other than chafed wrists and absolutely no reaction out of the adults?

She glanced as inconspicuously as she could at her fellow captive.

The dragon seemed as resigned as she was becoming to the chains and gag. After all, it wasn't new to this business. But there was something missing in the dragon. Something she used to see in it before, when she tried but failed to make friends with it like she had the other dragons. Something in the eyes. It took her a minute to puzzle it out just what seemed so different.

All of its fight was gone.

She remembered trying to make friends with it before, back in Berk, just like she had with all of the other dragons. It had always rebuked her though. She'd take a minute to watch it, try and figure it out. The nightmare would constantly be in motion. Pacing its cavernous cage as if waiting for the moment it's door opened so it could pounce out, biting, clawing, spitting fire. It wanted to go down and take whatever was facing it down with it.

But now, in chains and muzzled, it looked as defeated as she did.

And something else.

It looked afraid.

Her brows furrowed as she tried to discern where exactly the fear stemmed from. Her eyes roved the dragon's shuddering figure. It pulled away from the front of the ship, as if it were trying to get away from something coming up ahead. But what? Stoick was standing up there, scowling as he stared across the sea. She didn't think that was quite it though. Stoick was plenty scary, but he was just one man on a ship of other men. Why didn't the dragon jump at any of them as well? She stared longer and watched as Stoick moved from his post to get some of the food that was being dished out.

A growl from her stomach interrupted her observations.

She was really hungry, dammit. They hadn't fed her yet, either out of fear of taking her gag off or simply that they'd forgotten she was there and she needed food.

They might've been right to fear taking the gag off, because if she'd been given the opportunity, she would've bitten someone's finger off.

Though her sudden onset of hunger served as yet another (un)welcome distraction, she hadn't forgotten about the dragon. He didn't even glance at the food. Not once did his eyes stray from the seas ahead, not even to the lamb shanks being roasted over the fire pit. The smell was divine, and her stomach was vocal in its pleas to her to sink her teeth into the meat.

That food was really driving her insane.

How exactly was the dragon coping with being this frickin' hungry?

The answer occurred to her all of a sudden. It was so sudden, that for a moment she almost second-guessed her correctness. It was afraid of returning to the nest. She almost wished she'd been more interested in what Hiccup had had to say about the nest. He'd been so excited to tell her about it and all she'd done was focus on shutting him down about his crazy plan to tell the adults. Now, she was flying blind and helpless into this situation. All she knew was that there was a nest and a frost giant huge problem waiting for them there. That this gigantic monster of a dragon that could eat any single one of their garden variety dragons in a bite was waiting for them at the end of this voyage. And she couldn't even tell the other warriors about it because they were too scared of her and not scared enough of what they really should be worrying about.

No wonder the thing wasn't very hungry. It was hard to be hungry when you knew you were about to become someone else's dinner served on a neat platter by idiot Vikings.

In fact, her own hunger was starting to wane for the same reason.

Not that it completely went away. Just because the thought of food wasn't as pleasing any longer, didn't mean her body didn't forget that it wanted and needed food. So now she lay there nauseous at the thought of it, but in the back of her mind the hunger was there, niggling and making a nuisance of itself and causing her misery. And to add to all of that, there was the growing fear she was beginning to share with the nightmare. Even if she hadn't been there to see the monster herself with Hiccup, Toothless and Astrid, anything that could make a nightmare terrified was obviously bad news. Honor be damned in this case. She'd been forced to learn the hard way to pick her battles, and this was not one she wanted.

It was a little ironic that now that she knew better, she was being dragged into it anyway.

For as long as possible, she wanted to put off the inevitable. Opening her eyes and having to see that she was exactly where she'd been when she'd conked out and nothing had changed. It was a little pointless because she'd already felt the boat rocking on the waves beneath her, and heard the sound of the roaring wind and the crew Vikings puttering around. But with her eyes closed, she could pretend for a while that there was something else waiting for her behind her eyelids. The southern wall that her bed was pressed up against that she woke up to most mornings. The sight of Tuffnut's stupid face after he'd just dumped water on her to rouse her. Or best of all, to Toothless licking her cheek till she was conscious after she and Hiccup had fallen asleep on him in the gorge. She always pretended that she hated it, but she loved her dragon and she missed him as fiercely as she missed her brother and her best friend.

* * *

As Ruffnut became more aware of what she could feel and hear, she started picking up voices speaking softly, using certain words that piqued her curiosity.

"...I don't like this."

A woman's voice.

"Neither do I, but what can we do about it?"

High, male. Almost bored. She was positive that it was Gobber.

"Speak up!" the woman hissed, "Contest their decision!"

"Do my ears betray me or do I actually hear Phlegma the Blunt considering mutiny?"

Ruffnut jerked where she lay. Phlegma? Phlegma Hofferson? Astrid's mother?

"Silence you infernal blacksmith! Stop twisting my words. Speaking your mind is not mutiny."

"I' is when wha'ever ye say goes against the chieftain."

"Of course you would feel that way. You wouldn't understand this atrocity," the woman, Phlegma, muttered, "You're Stoick's lapdog and you don't know what it's like to have children."

"Nah another word," Gobber growled.

Again, Ruffnut was startled, only this time, it was by the real anger she could hear in his voice. Gobber wasn't the type to get angry. Sure, he yelled and barked orders at her and the rest of the teens during dragon training, but he never got truly angry. Like he was now.

"Ye think that this doesn' bother me?" Gobber asked, "Ye think I don' see how wrong this situation is?" There was silence for a moment. "Stoick's boy is as good as my own. I train those children ta be warriors year in, year out. Ye really believe me to have no 'eart for them woman?"

"I don't know about your mind, or your heart Gobber," came the response, "All I know is that we are dragging a girl, no older than my own, to her death based on information and assumptions I do not trust. I don't think Stoick is thinking straight, denouncing her as a witch with so little proof and launching an attack so soon after our last failed attempt."

"Thas because he isn't."

"What makes you say that?"

Curiosity was in Phlegma's voice. The girl feigning sleep could feel her own building as well at Gobber's strange comment.

"Stoick has been under pressure. I don' think anyone realizes, but the number of dragon raids on the village have been goin' up lately. More homes destroyed, more livestock, more warriors, lost. An' when our situation seems ta get bad enough, it'll get worse. Outsiders have never tried ta pick a fight with the Hairy Hooligans before thanks ta our terrifying reputation. Once they hear of our weakened state, they will come an' take whatever the dragons have left behind. As chief, it's his job to make sure our village's safe. He cannae afford ta not deal with the dragon problem. An' of course, there's Hiccup ta consider."

"Why say she's a witch though? What does this have to do with Hiccup?" Phlegma asked confused.

"Think abou' how much time Hiccup and the Thorston girl spend together."

"What does that... oh."

Ruffnut almost growled in frustration. She didn't get it. If Hiccup were here, he could've read between the lines and explained just what Gobber meant. As it was, she didn't like whatever it was the large blond man was trying to convey to Phlegma.

"Exactly. It would have been only a matter of time before someone thought ta question the relationship between Stoick's son and a traitor. He migh' be protecting Hiccup from wha'ever the village migh' accuse."

"So you're saying he let his feelings for his son are interfering with his duty as chief? At the expense of another child?"

"I said migh'. An tell me, if ye were in his shoes, an' it was yer own daughter facing charges of treason, wha' would ye do?"

Phlegma didn't respond.

"Thas wha' I thought."

Their conversation ended there. Phlegma refused to speak and Gobber no longer felt the need to seeing as how he'd succeeded in derailing Phlegma's rant. The blonde girl herself was reeling at the overload of information that had been unknowingly revealed to her. It had been easy to blame and hate Stoick. She'd already had a heap of dislike for him just from what she pieced together from Hiccup. The relationship between the Haddock's hit a little too close to home for her. She understood too well what it was like to have expectations and zero communication between parent and child. The test had really been the breaking point. He'd given her a personal reason to really hate his guts. While he'd reacted to her "dragons aren't really as bad as they seem" pitch as expected, she couldn't help the disappointment (despite her growing misgivings about him) that the man she'd once respected as their village chieftain could be so narrow minded. Even worse, that he seriously accused her of being a witch and a traitor.

And then banished her.

And then brought her on a raid that was a suicide run.

While she'd been realistic enough to realize not everyone was going to open their arms to the idea to her and Hiccup's view of dragons, she wasn't expecting negative feedback of this level. It was really overkill. And apparently, even Gobber and frickin' Phlegma Hofferson saw it too.

But Ruffnut had become a sucker for people (and dragons) with sob stories. Hiccup and Toothless had taught her to at least open the book and read a couple pages before tossing it in the fire. Sure, she could lay a large pile of faults at the feet of the man, but like Gobber had demonstrated, there were reasons, motivations behind everything Stoick did. Whether or not Ruffnut agreed with those motivations, she sadly understood them.

_What good does that do me?_she thought to herself as she shifted restlessly. The only reply she received being the unwelcome sound of the links of her shackles clinking together.

* * *

There was a low whine in the darkness.

It was high and annoying enough to pull her from the delirious haze of not-sleep-hunger she was in. There was the smallest bit of light near her and the dragon. Someone hung a lantern near them and only them. With the light, she was able to figure out it was the dragon making those pathetic noises, as it struggled against it's restraints, trying to push towards the back of the boat.

By the level of panic it was displaying, Ruffnut figured they must be pretty close to the island.

Not a very happy thought.

Though she didn't mind the commotion too much, since she felt someone needed to be freaking out here and she just couldn't muster the energy for it, others weren't of the same mind. The dragon's frantic noises and keening were beginning to annoy the few Vikings awake and rouse the ones who weren't. It was only a matter of time before grumblings and discontent began to boil over. In the dark, she watched as someone stood in the dark and approached her in the dragon. She tensed, waiting for whoever it was to see who it was.

It shouldn't have shocked her that it was her own father.

All of her breath left her anyway. He came swiftly, marching straight up to the nightmare and striking it's large muzzled snout. Before Toothless, she would have cheered on her father, who feared no dragon and was strong like the chieftain, for punching a dragon in the face with his bare fist. This was now, and the person Ruffnut was at this moment was like a polar opposite to that one. She saw a monster and for once, it wasn't a dragon.

Ruffnut had moved before she was even conscious of the desire to. She'd shoved herself between Tuffnut Sr. and the dragon, practically pressed against the side of dragon's snout that was facing the man. With more defiance than she thought capable after he'd clapped her in these irons, she glared up at him, daring him to try and hit the nightmare again. No, that wasn't really right. She was daring him to hit _her_. Just how far have you actually fallen? How much farther would he have to fall in her eyes? If the gag was out, she'd be jeering and provoking him with her mouth. Do it. Do it you troll! With less fear and more anticipation and gut wrenching disappointment, she watched as he began to raise his arm.

If she had been holding her breath for the moment the blow would land, she'd be holding it forever. And would probably choke on it. The hit never came. A hand was clamped down around her father's wrist. Her eyes trailed up the arm and she saw the face of Phlegma, all righteous fury. Twice now, this woman had done something for her. Ruffnut was really going to have to make an effort now to be nice to her daughter if she ever got the chance. If not just for the fact that Astrid could potentially be her sister in-law some day if things went the way she thought they would.

"Unhand me Hofferson," her father rattled out at the woman.

"Not until you back away," Phlegma challenged, "I will handle this."

For a moment, Ruffnut was convinced he wouldn't do what she said. It would have been awesome to watch her sock him in the nose, but Ruffnut wasn't sure if Phlegma could take her father in a fight if it actually went down. Phlegma was plenty tough and well known around the village, but her father had a rep too.

"Stand down Tuffnut," someone else called from the darkness. It was easy to recognize it as Stoick.

Silently, her father backed down. Phlegma released him quickly but did not move away from where she stood near Ruffnut and the dragon. Soon, it became too difficult to track her father's movements as he went farther into the dark. She stopped staring after him and turned her attention to Phlegma. The woman looked at a loss for what to do with her now that she'd diverted her father. Ruffnut was again wishing she could say something, because she kind of wanted to let her how damn thankful she was. It was kind of hard to do it non-verbally without it being weird. So she and Phlegma were stuck staring awkwardly at each other, neither really willing to back down before the other did. That was until Phlegma gave an agitated sigh, closing her eyes as she pinched the bridge of her nose.

"You would do well to keep the beast quiet and so as to avoid these kinds of situations."

Ruffnut nodded.

"Well, that's all."

And then Phlegma left her as well.

The dragon was relatively quieter now, not as scared anymore, just whimpering over its hurts. She wondered where the ferocious beast she'd known had gone. Ruffnut didn't know which version she preferred. This meek one was much more tolerant of her, as shown by the way it was letting her shackled hands slide over its snout in calming strokes. But at least when it was fighting, it had spirit. That was what set it apart from the other dragons. That was what made Ruffnut admire it. Slowly, her ministrations calmed it until it seemed to be sleeping. Her own fatigue was beginning to creep back up on her now that she'd been relieved of her distraction.

With one last pat, she lowered herself to the ground where she'd stood, propping herself against the dragon, and let herself nod off again.

* * *

The next time she opened her eyes, she thought she'd gone blind.

The world all around her was this hazy white.

The memory of clouds colors danced through her mind before she swatted it away.

Had she gone blind in the night?

Had she died and was now traveling through the mists of Hiflheim?*

If she was, she was going to throw a fit, because she was supposed to die an awesome death. Or at least in a tavern brawl with Tuffnut at her back and her opponent looking worse than she did. Her inner rant was halted when Phlegma stepped into her line of sight, staring grimly out into the distance.

"We're almost there," Phlegma said, not once letting her eyes stray.

Ruffnut followed her line of sight and felt the blood drain out of her face. Large columns of rock jutted out of the sea. The scary thing about it was that there were wrecked Viking ships caught upon them, as if they'd been dropped from the sky to be impaled upon the rocks. It was horrific. Desperate to find something else to stare at, she looked to the nightmare, only to find it disturbingly quiet and still. She could barely make out the shallow breaths it took. It stared straight ahead. Right about now, the she could make out a dark shape growing along the horizon, blurred by what she now realized was a thick fog. And craggy, rocky island. The nest.

Phlegma moved away from her at that point, following the other warrior's lead and arming herself with spear. Stoick was surprisingly at the back, steering the vessel himself. Sooner than expected, than was welcome really, the entire Viking fleet was pulling up onto shore. She wasn't ready for it, and the contact between the hull and land rocked her violently. The dragon didn't even react to her tumbling against it. It just stayed still, and through its scales she could feel the hum of tension in its body. The Vikings moved quickly to disembark and prepare for the siege. Anyone with an axe was sharpening stakes and planting them in a defensive perimeter around the boats. Some were setting up the catapults. Others were lining the graveled shore, preparing for the charge. Finally, there was a small group away from the others. Stoick surrounded by his best warriors, Gobber, Spitelout, and Phlegma, in a last minute war council. It gave her the slightest bit of pleasure to see her father wasn't included in the group.

They talked for a while before Stoick motioned with one hand, something she couldn't quite make out from the boat. Several catapults released right then, blasting the rack face. It collapsed under the assault. Taking their positions. Gobber, Spitelout and Phlegma had joined the rest of the warriors, while Stoick himself stood many feet ahead of them, boldly facing the chasm before him. With hammer in hand, he gave another signal and another catapult shot went flying. One that was on fire. She watched in awe as Stoick stood there unflinchingly as it soared just barely over his head, not scared for even a second it would hit him.

Many things happened in the next couple of seconds.

Stoick roared, dragons poured out of the cave in multitudes, the Vikings charged.

Then, just like that, it was over. They'd all gone.

There was a moment's worth of a confused pause over the anticlimactic ending before everyone was cheering as if they'd fought a glorious battle and emerged victorious. Ruffnut knew better. The nightmare's cowering and frantic attempts to free itself screamed danger to her. And it seemed that Stoick realized it too, because he was yelling for them all to reform ranks. To get ready.

It was coming.

A terrible roar rent the air. It was so loud, as if no other sound existed in the world besides it. The sheer force of it unbalanced several Vikings, caused minor avalanches on the rock face, and rocked the boats on the shore.

The earth quaking underfoot followed the roar. Then the cave exploded outwards in falling shards of stone and rubble. It was all the Vikings could do to not be crushed by it. Emerging from all of it was a large... thing. No, it wasn't just large, it was massive. Bigger than anything she'd ever seen before. Odin, Thor, Loki, whoever was out there. Never had she prayed more that Hiccup could have been wrong. Not that she'd ever really prayed for him to be wrong. This really would've been a good time for him to be not right.

Especially as the monstrosity of a dragon began to spew plumes of fire.

In her direction.

Well, in the direction of the boats, but it was her butt that was going to end up fried.

She closed her eyes and prayed a little harder. Maybe burning to death wouldn't suck as much as she knew it probably would.

* * *

**Chapter Eight: Into the Ocean** - End

* * *

AN: I've been gone a really long time. The plain and simple is that the creative juices haven't been flowing for a really long time. I have this story all planned out, but planning is different from putting it into words. I'm really sorry to all of you who have been waiting on me for so long. I'm trying to get this finished. AS a bit of an apology, here's a little side scene that typically wouldn't have been seen due to how the POV works in this story:

_Angels Short Shot: Toothless, I Choose You!_

"So uh," Tuffnut started once Hiccup left, "Who gets what?"

"Huh?" Fishlegs and Snotlout said in unison.

"I mean, it's obvious Haddock is going to get the nightfury."

"What?" Fishlegs and Snotlout exclaimed loudly.

"A nightfury?" Fishlegs asked, fearfully.

"Don't sweat it," Tuffnut said, waving his hand dismissively, "Haddock and Ruff..." he paused a second, "they got it all domesticated now."

"Domesticated?"

"Yeah."

"So back to business." The male twin straightened, hands clasped behind his back. "We have here..." he glanced at the dragons, "a gronkle..." he paused again, "Not it!"

"Not it," Astrid said, rolling her eyes.

"Not it!" Snotlout cried once he figured out what was going on.

"You know," Fishlegs spoke exasperatedly, "I would've picked it if you'd just asked."

They all looked at him blankly.

"Really?"

"Uh, yeah."

They stared at him disbelievingly.

"Okay." Tuffnut looked back to the other dragons. "Next, the nadder. I call dibs!" He marched over to it. "You're my dragon now!"

It eyed him critically before sniffing snootily at him and hopping away until it stood next to Astrid.

"Oi!" He cried, "Dragons don't get to pick!"

"I think it just did man," Snotlout stage whispered to him, as the Astrid reached out to pet it, receiving a content purr from the nadder.

Tuffnut pouted.

"So..." Snotlout said, "There's two dragons left but..."

They both looked at the selection. There was a zippleback. That was fine. Zipplebacks were cool. And then there was the terror. Chasing its tail.

"You wanna share the zippleback?" Tuffnut offered grumpily, unhappy about the turnout.

"Uh, sure."

"You guys ready?" Hiccup called down to them from on Toothless's back. He landed in of the four of them, Fishlegs and Snotlout looking both awed and terrified.

"Yeah," Astrid answered, "You gonna show us how to ride em now?"

"Yeah. Let's get some rope and get started. We've got a rescue to launch!"

_Short Shot_ - End

AN (Cont): See you next chapter!

Oh, and Hiflheim*, is the place where people go when they die an unheroic death. I am not confident with this fact, since wikipedia provided it. So, yeah, blame that if you know better. Or let me know so I can fix it.

* * *

Next Installment:

Chapter Nine: To Battle


	10. Chapter Nine: To Battle

**Chapter Nine: To Battle**

* * *

Take off from Berk had been surprisingly easy. All of the teens, Hiccup especially, had expected a ruckus to kick up the minute they began to take off. Dragons flying overhead didn't exactly inspire peace and serenity. Definitely not in Berk. In the past, there would always be a group of warriors left behind during a raid to protect the village in the case of dragons moving in on the village while the main force was gone. However, this time all of them were gone. Even Gobber who more often than not would be one of those left behind, was gone. His father's designated Hiccup sitter. Though Hiccup liked Gobber well enough as his sarcastic, offensive friend and mentor, he resented being treated like an idiot child.

A voice that sounded deceptively like his insecurity and Snotlout lumped into one, taunted him, told him he _was_ a _child_playing with the adults' game. That a weak little loser like him couldn't do anything but cause more damage and destruction.

He wondered vaguely, as the wind rushed wildly past him, if Ruffnut would be disturbed or pleased that it was her voice that cheered him on. And what metaphorically kicked Insecurity Snotlout's butt.

Once he saved her, he'd tell her that. He'd tell her a lot of things.

He'd tell her how sorry he was for dragging her into this mess. It had been his entire fault from the moment the idea of shooting a night fury had popped into his head. Not that he hadn't thanked the gods for having Toothless and Ruffnut in his life every day since that moment. Shooting a night fury out of the sky had done little fix everything wrong in his life, but it had done a lot of right in the form of his two best friends.

One of which was going to die if he didn't get his head in the game right this instant.

As if sensing his mood, Toothless looked up over his shoulder, his big glowing green eye boring into Hiccup's own stormy ones. He'd understood. Maybe even before Hiccup had gone to get him. Toothless had the strangest way of sensing the situation. Like when things were about to go down with that herd of dragons the night before. And even little things from before like when he was in a slump or Ruffnut had worked herself up into a royal snit over something. Toothless always knew and knew what he needed to do to make it better. The minute Hiccup had shown up, looking for help to rescue their snarky blonde, the dragon was ready to be saddled and his demeanor no less fierce or determined. There really wasn't any other person or dragon he'd trust more to help him do this.

Time had been taken up getting the others flight ready, and by that point, they only managed to fly for a couple of hours before night fall. They'd made camp without much ceremony and had gotten up early to continue their flight. Hiccup desperately hoped they were making progress on catching up to the boats.

He felt Toothless bob in the air a bit, and it shook him out of his thoughts.

"Hiccup!" he heard someone call from behind him. It was Astrid.

"What?"

"You sure this is the right way back to the island?"

"Not really," he admitted, "But I think Toothless and the other dragons should know."

"What?" he heard what he was sure was Snotlout exclaim.

"You mean you're not sure where we're going?" Fishlegs whimpered, "I thought you had like a map, or a course heading, or something, you know..."

"Maps have never helped the adults before," Astrid pointed out, "The other night, the dragon was the one who got us there."

"Are they really going to take us to Ruffnut?" Hiccup could hear the doubt and the fear in Tuffnut's voice, though Tuffnut tried to hide the latter.

"Yeah!" Fishlegs said, "What if they're just leading us to our deaths? Like, they're plotting with each other to drop us into the sea so we'll drown? Or-or-that they're going to feed us to that queen dragon you told us about! Or-"

"Fishlegs!" Astrid snapped, cutting across his babble.

Over the course of their conversation, the dragons had begun to slow, so that they all were flying in a line side by side as opposed to the V formation they'd been in before at full speed. Fishlegs was on the other side of Astrid, looking nervous as Astrid glared at him and Hiccup regarded him quietly. He glanced to his left at Tuffnut who was waiting impatiently for him to answer. Snotlout was as quiet as Hiccup was on the other side of Tuffnut, for once not having anything cutting to say to Hiccup like he usually did.

For a moment, he wished he could swap places with Ruffnut. She'd know what to do in this situation. What to say. Ruffnut knew all of these guys better than he did. Had earned their respect and awe in dragon training as the favored champion. She was Tuffnut's sister, Astrid's rival, and both Snotlout and Fishlegs pretty much hero-worshipped her. Being called a traitor and a witch had done nothing to dampen her popularity amongst their peers. He had a sneaking suspicion that rescuing her had been the only reason he'd managed to talk them into this crazy scheme. And it was crazy, really, hopping onto dragons and flying off to go save her and their parents.

The sooner Ruffnut was saved the better. Hiccup had plans. Plans that involved never having to deal with dragon hating villages and fathers who didn't listen ever again. Loki willing, he'd even invite Tuffnut along if Ruffnut insisted on it. They just needed to get away so that Ruffnut and Toothless would be safe and no one would ever try to hurt them ever again.

Fog was beginning to gather in the horizon. He knew that they were fast approaching the island. If the gut feeling telling him so wasn't enough, then the thrum of anticipation running from Toothless into the saddle and Hiccup himself more than confirmed it.

_We're coming._

* * *

A scream like a roar rent the air.

Or was it a roar like a scream?

It was actually a scream and a roar. It was just hard to tell. As one, a boy and a dragon cried out in their own way as a girl was engulfed in flames. What a couple more minutes could have meant. No screaming. No roaring. No girl on fire.

Surprisingly, Hiccup's hold on the saddle stayed firm, and the foot he had on the pedal that controlled Toothless's fin remained steady as he pressed the dragon forward. Despite the outward calm he was projecting, it felt like his heart had sunk into his stomach even as he felt it pound in his chest. Felt it pound through his skull like a hammer on an anvil. If he and Toothless were to fall out of the sky right at that moment into a terrifying tailspin, it would be anyone's guess if he could be bothered to pull them out of it.

How had this happened? They were here. They made it to the nest of dragons.

One minute the boats had been there. Ruffnut had been there, bound, but alive and there.

And then the fire was there too.

The gods damned fire.

It had swallowed the boats like a golden red monster of heat, devouring everything in its path. Including the boat Ruffnut was on. Toothless and the other dragons had just fired at the Red Death to distract it from attacking the warriors fleeing from it on the ground.

"Hiccup!" he heard Astrid yell distantly. "Hiccup, what now?"

He continued to stare blankly at the flames.

"Freya help me, Hiccup! Hiccup! You need to snap out of it!"

He really wanted to listen to her. She'd flown her nadder into his line of sight and was desperately trying to make him see her, hear her. And then suddenly flames shot in their direction. Toothless threw himself and Hiccup away in one direction while Astrid and her nadder just barely evaded on their own. From the startled yelps and swearing he heard, he assumed that the others had dodged the flames as well. Suddenly, he heard his name being called again.

And it definitely wasn't Astrid this time.

Turning Toothless in the air, he scanned the boats that were steadily burning, trying to keep his stomach's contents from being ejected at the mental visualization of Ruffnut burning up. He heard his name called again, faraway, with more urgency. His eyes finally touched upon them.

On her.

Ruffnut, looking perplexingly soggy but alive, _alive,_and well, stood on the shore. For what felt like forever, they stared back at one another.

"So this is the rescue party?" she finally called up to him, a grin splitting her unbound face, "Gotta say, I'm kind of impressed!"

"You're alright..." he breathed out,"Ruff!"

"I had a little help from some new friends of mine!"

She gestured behind herself and his eyes bugged out at the sight. Most surprising was his father, looking nervously up at him. He could feel the anger he'd felt towards he father waning a little, unable to hold up against how grateful he was that Ruffnut was alive and that his dad had helped make sure she was. There was also another woman who he recognized to be none other than Phlegma Hofferson. He could hear Astrid gasping at the sight of her mother helping hold Ruffnut up. Finally, behind them all was the nightmare that had been chained up and taken on the boats with the rest of the warriors. It looked as sorry a sight as Ruffnut did. Still, the irrepressible fierceness all nightmares possessed was present in it as it loomed protectively over the three humans. Although if he thought about it, it was more likely that the only one it was really protective of was Ruffnut herself.

"Toothless, Haddock, incoming on your right!" Ruffnut was suddenly yelling.

Though he was still too out of it to get her warning, Toothless wasn't and swerved again just in time to keep them from getting chomped by the huge head of the Queen.

"Thanks buddy," he said, patting the dragon's neck.

He glanced back to see the others had dodged successfully as well. With the knowledge that Ruffnut was alive and mostly safe where she was, he grasped the harness on Toothless firmly and pulled in the direction of the Queen.

"Guys! This way." He called to the others. They followed his lead, unsure, but ready. "And watch your backs!"

They circled the Red Death, bobbing and weaving, making sure to suitably distract it from the Vikings at ground level to give them more time to find cover. Hiccup looked at the colossal dragon in front of them trying to think of how to approach attacking it. He wasn't really that much of an expert on dragons outside of Toothless.

"Hey Fishlegs!"

"Yeah?" the heavy set boy called back nervously.

"Can you break down this thing's stats?"

"O-Ok!" There was a moment's pause before Fishlegs continued. "Heavily armored skull and tail made for bashing and crushing! Steer clear of both!"

_So noted_, Hiccup thought to himself as he eyed both, more specifically the tail that looked like a very large, very dangerous mace that could be used to swat them out of the sky.

"Small eyes, large nostrils. Relies on hearing and smell!"

All right. Now that he could definitely work with.

"Astrid, Legs! Hang in its blind spot and make noise, keep it confused!"

He watched as both of them nodded and peeled off from the group, Fishlegs guiding Astrid to where the best blind spot would be on the Queen. Frowning, he took in who he had left. Snotlout and Tuffnut on the zippleback. It would be good to find out if the Queen had a limit on her fire shots like the gronkle did.

"Tuff, Snotlout, find out if it has a shot limit!" He ordered. "Make it mad!"

Tuffnut smirked wickedly back at him.

"That's my specialty!" he whooped, punching a fist in the air.

Angling the zippleback at the Queen's head, he sent himself and Snotlout towards its head.

"Dude! Try not to get us killed!" Snotlout hollered at his dragon mate.

For a moment, he worried those two really were going to get themselves killed. He wondered if he should've sent Astrid instead, considering the fact that the nadder was more agile and better at aerial dodging than the zippleback was. Maybe he should go help them out? But as he sat there and watched a little longer, he saw that they were doing all right. Tuffnut was spouting the most obnoxious and foul insults he could think of. It was reminding Hiccup of Ruffnut and making him see the familial resemblance between the Thorston twins more clearly than ever before. Snotlout was doing his part of the taunting, but mostly, he'd taken over the driving and keeping them alive portion of their assignment. Thank the gods one of them was.

Just as he was about to move in so he and Toothless could pepper the Queen with some attacks, he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. He heard what, or rather, who, it was before he could see them.

"Hey, got a job for me oh fearless leader?"

It was Ruffnut, mounted on the nightmare, cocky grin still in place on her face.

More than anything, he wanted to tell her that her job was to sit this one out. He'd already been scared half to death once today. He didn't want to put her in danger again. But he knew Ruffnut. Knew that she would never allow herself to be benched for this. This was the moment they'd been talking about all of those times they talked about creating peace between vikings and dragons. They hadn't known then that it would be here and now, and obviously trying during the champion's match had been too soon. But this was it. If they got rid of the Queen now, the war would finally be over. Ruffnut deserved to be a part of this

"Yeah," he finally answered her with a nod.

"Thought I'd have to fight you on this," she said, some surprise leaking into her eyes.

"Nah. The only way that fight would end would be with you hitting me. And I'd rather you not."

And what a lie that was. He'd let her punch him every day if that meant he had physical proof she was actually there. He smiled, trying not to let all of his soppiness show. This was a battle. They really needed to be focused on the battle and not on each other.

Ruffnut cackled.

"Good! Now tell me what to do or else I'm going to try flying up its nostril and see if there's anything there to pull!"

He shook his head in fond amusement before speaking.

"See if the others need any help! And if you can try getting some shots off at its underside do it! I want to see if its belly is vulnerable!

"Can do!" she said, mock saluting him. "I'll still think going nose mining would've been more interesting but you're the boss!"

Shaking his head, he followed her lead as she drove her nightmare in the direction of the Red Death with much the same reckless abandon as Tuffnut had.

* * *

They'd been at their jobs for several minutes without much success. All their combined efforts were merely annoying the large dragon and not doing any serious damage. That was all well and good while buying some time for their parents and kinsmen to make a run for it, but now it was getting them nowhere. The zippleback was starting to get tired and sluggish. Its aerial maneuvers were barely keeping it and Tuffnut and Snotlout out of trouble even with cover from him and Ruffnut. Speaking of Rufnut, Ruff's nightmare had reached its shot limit. Even if it had those wicked claws, they wouldn't be much good against Queen, considering how thick her skin was.

He yelled when he saw Astrid thrown from her dragon, but was quickly relieved when she managed to last minute catch herself on the ridges of the Queen's crown. Ever resourceful, she was taking advantage of the situation, using her bare hands to punch and blind the dragon's many eyes. Dragging his attention away from her, he saw that Fishlegs had been downed as well, his gronkle in a dead faint on the ground as Fishlegs scurried to avoid getting stomped to death.

Snotlout and Tuffnut weren't fairing much better than they already had been, still under continuous fire from the dragon they were further enraging. Ruffnut and the nightmare were doing what they could to serve as a distraction for the others, taking swipes and clawing at the side of the dragon's face that wasn't already being pummeled by Astrid.

They needed to switch tactics. It was obvious they could no longer keep this up.

"Ruffnut!" he called out.

"Kind of busy here Hiccup, what is it?" she shouted back at him.

"We need to fall back! Can you get Astrid out of there?"

The look she managed to shoot him was the slightest disgruntled, but she moved in other girl's direction anyway.

If they all made it out of this, that was another thing he was probably going to put on the list of things he needed to make up to Ruffnut.

"Tuffnut, Snotlout!" The minute he saw he had their attention, he continued. "Start having the zippleback breathe gas into its face. Once Ruffnut's got Astrid out, have the other head light it and get out of there!"

"Awright!" Tuffnut cheered, and even Snotlout looked enthusiastic about the plan.

A huge sickly green cloud began to form around the Queen's head. The gas breathing head of the zippleback was spewing as if its life depended on it, and in a way, it kind of did. The minute Ruffnut and Astrid cleared the gas cloud, the other head set off the spark. Snotlout and Tuffnut had barely enough time to get away from the ensuing explosion that erupted all about the big dragon's head. Hiccup knew better than to hope that that would've done more than phase it, though he hoped for it. His gut feeling was proved right and the Queen roared again.

"Fall back guys!" he ordered at the top of his lungs, "Fall back!"

The Queen went to make a snap at Ruffnut and Astrid, but he and Toothless were there, peppering fire shots in its face to help their retreat. That done, he directed Toothless to spiral high above the beast. Looking down at it, something stuck out to him.

"That thing has wings," he muttered to Toothless, his brows furrowing in thought. Toothless glanced back at him, waiting see what their next move would be. Hiccup nodded to himself and tugged on the harness, a plan formulating as he spoke, "Ok, let's see if it can use them!"

Toothless, knowing exactly what he was thinking, let his wings extend out causing their upward momentum to halt. They began to free fall backwards before Toothless seamlessly moved them into more of a head first dive at the Red Death. He could see the wings they were targeting from above very clearly, even more clearly as they grew closer and closer with their dive. They appeared crusty and withered, but he was suspicious. Their velocity picked up and he could hear the high shrieking whistling sound that was created as Toothless moved lightning fast through the sky, gravity driving them faster. Another second and…

Direct hit.

"You think that did it?"

The force of the shot actually drove the Queen to slam into the rocky ground. Toothless moved to put more distance between them and the dragon, waiting for it to get back up. As the dust and smoke began to clear, the first thing he could see through them was the blurry imprint of massive wings. The tattered and membranous things stretched and unfurled, their span so large that they blacked out half the sky.

"Well it can fly!" Hiccup said, urging Toothless to move faster to evade the other dragon's attacks.

Immediately, the Queen was on their tail, her huge body being lifted by her even huger wings. She roared, so loud that Hiccup was tempted to reach up and clap his hands over his ears. He'd be really glad once he could shut that thing up. He bit his lip. Hopefully this would work and they really would stop it. If ever there was one dragon Hiccup believed had no good in it, it was the Red Death. This dragon didn't just kill people, it killed its own kind. Every other dragon was either a slave or food to it. And was he couldn't understand was why it didn't go and hunt for its own food to survive. It was certainly proving itself capable of fending for itself and being able to transport itself with those huge wings. Why did it need to terrorize both the smaller dragons and indirectly the humans they raided? Was it really that cruel or just lazy? Either way, he wasn't going to allow this dragon to continue forcing Toothless, or any other dragon, or any more of his people, to live in fear and war and hatred of one another. The killing had to end somewhere. This was it.

Still.

It was kind of funny in a way. Ruffnut would certainly appreciate the irony of it once he got to explaining it to her. All his life, wanting to be a dragon slayer to make his dad proud and then swearing off killing dragons the minute Ruffnut brought him to Toothless. And now, circumstances had set him on the direct path to killing a dragon.

He muttered grumpily under his breath about how irony could go kiss a troll's cheeks. He didn't particularly care which set it kissed either.

The nightfury and its rider ducked and weaved through different rock formations, hoping it would slow the beast down. Unfortunately, with the thing's size and the toughness of its head, it merely bulldozed through the rocks like they were wet paper. Grasping at a half formed idea that he got from glancing up at the stormy, cloud filled sky, Hiccup pulled up on Toothless, signaling him to fly straight up. Though the clouds made it hard for them to see, he imagined it was a lot harder for the Red Death. If Fishlegs' stat breakdown of the thing was to be believed, then it wouldn't fare well up in the clouds. Its already poor eyesight would be further hindered while its senses of smell and hearing would be dampened as well. This was the ideal battleground to press any and all advantages they had on the behemoth.

The fight became hit and run at that point. Using the cloud cover, he and Toothless darted around the confused and disoriented Queen, firing one shot at a time and pulling back. Each shot was specifically targeted in one region of the dragon's body. They made a pretty good run of it. That was until the larger dragon became so enraged, she spewed a continuous stream of fire in every direction. They tried to dodge but got side swiped by the out of control plumes. Hiccup cursed mentally as he glanced back to take in the damaged. The tail fin had been hit. Slowly but surely it was burning up.

"Okay, time's up. Let's see if this works."

They swerved sharply and made for a quick pass by the Red Death's huge maw.

"Come on, is that all that you've got?" he taunted it.

As they narrowly avoided getting chomped to death, a weird thought occurred to him. Did dragons actually understand human speech? Toothless had always seemed like he was following what he and Ruffnut said, so he just assumed. Were his taunts, and Tuffnut and Snotlout's from earlier, in any way effective in getting this thing mad? Maybe. It was hard to tell, since pissed off seemed a natural state of being for the thing as it went in pursuit of them the minute it had them right in its sights. Sending them into a dive, Hiccup was glad to see that the other dragon was still following them. His plan was really working. Since his plans usually went bad, he was glad his success streak was holding steady. Hopefully it would last him just a little longer.

Things were getting a little dicey though. The fin was responding less and less to the pedal. He could feel the thrum of tension and anxiety in Toothless and did all he could to reassure the dragon they could make this. They had to.

"Hold Toothless."

He closed his eyes, and for a moment held his breath and began the count in his head.

_Three._

Holding in.

_Two._

Hold a little longer and...

_One._

"Now!" he cried on his exhale, his eyes open wide.

Hitting the pedal hard, Toothless's body turned fast so that they were falling back first, with their front facing the Queen. The Queen had her jaw open wide, the beginnings of gas clouds forming at the back of her throat, indications of the intent to breathe fire. Well, that wasn't going to happen.

Toothless fired a shot off a fire bolt point blank into the Queen's gaping mouth. It was much like the time he'd done it to the terror back on the island he'd shown to Ruff. Only that had been a warning shot. This wasn't.

The Queen roared in pain, its head wildly swinging from side to side. Hiccup turned his attention away at that point, focusing instead on getting him and Toothless facing the ground so they could pull up from their dive. Toothless let his wings out, using them like parachute to slow their descent. The Queen, sensing the imminent and dangerous collision it was about to had with the ground, tried to copy Toothless but it was to no avail. The entire time they'd been raining down shots about her, they'd targeted her wings. Even the sheer size of the wings couldn't stand a chance at holding up such a large body when it was riddled with holes. The dragon continued to fall to the ground, roaring in fear and pain as it plummeted to what looked like its end.

Hiccup and Toothless, however, were not fairing much better. Though they'd managed to keep themselves from hitting the ground with the force the Queen had, Hiccup had finally lost all flight control. Fire was rushing up at them from below where the impact of the Red Death had caused an explosion. In front of them were the dragon's large spikes, serving as inconvenient obstacles they were forced to dodge around so as not to crash. That was, until they no longer had the ability to dodge.

"No!" Hiccup shouted as he and his dragon friend went crashing into the large spiked end of the Queen's tail. He could feel their forward momentum carry him forward, feel his forehead's impact with the side of the spike with excruciating clarity.

They'd been really close. A little farther and they could've cleared the Queen's body and tried gliding to safety.

But it was too late for that now.

_This feels like a concussion_, he thought to himself, as his consciousness slowly slipped away from him. He'd gotten plenty of those as a child with how clumsy he was. His mom would always take care of him during those. Then his dad would yell at him. But now he supposed that was his dad's way of saying he cared and that he was scared for him. His dad, Stoick the Vast, chieftain of the Hairy Hooligans of Berk, scared. But it made sense. Seeing your loved ones hurt or in danger was scary, especially when there wasn't much you could do about it.

He hoped Toothless got out of this okay. He wanted Toothless to be safe. And Ruff too. Especially Ruff. She may be tough, but she was a lot more breakable than Toothless was. Maybe they'd take care of each other now that he wasn't there to take care of them.

He could almost imagine it.

Ruffnut and Toothless, exploring the world together, raising hell, watching each other's backs through thick and thin.

It was a nice thought.

He was almost sad he couldn't see himself there with them.

But he was done. He was tired and everything felt so warm and fuzzy. There was something important to do, but he felt with a certainty that he'd done it. So was the harm in resting now?

There was a voice calling his name. Sounded familiar, but he just couldn't be bothered to place it or respond.

"_HICCUP!"_

And then what fleeting consciousness he had left was gone.

* * *

** Chapter Nine: To Battle** - End

* * *

AN: I'm truly sorry I've been gone for so long guys. There's just so much. I get so caught up in RL and writing block never helps. I always try to keep up with writing but sometimes it just falls to the wayside. It's fun for me to write but life's not always fun and games you know? Sorry for getting so "guh"on you guys here. I've updated, yay! Let's pray I can ride out this writing surge a little longer. Not updating since August is really sucktastic. I read fanfic by authors as flaky as I am, so I know what I'm putting you guys through and I'm really sorry for you addicts out there who are suffering withdrawals.

Anyway, time to comment on the actual chapter and not my "Boo-hoo, I'm so busy and uncreative I can't write because WRITING IS HARD" pity party. I tried really to not make this chapter a blow by blow retelling of the movie battle, but I feel like I didn't succeed. You can let me know what you think there. I'm also afraid Hiccup was too emo during his _oh gods Ruff is dead _moment. Oh well. Ruffnut, as usual, is my favorite part of this chapter. And troll cheeks. The time of arrival as well as the interchanging use of "it" and "her" pronouns for the Queen was intentional.

Also, to give you some insight into the writing process of this chapter, I'll give you a soundtrack of the songs I listened to while writing: _Vox Populi _30 Seconds on Mars, _Falling Down_Oasis, and _Libera me (ROW ROW Fight the POWER!) _from the (pardon my French, BOSS F*CKING SS epic) anime Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.

* * *

Next Installment: 

Chapter Ten: Head Towards Tomorrow


	11. Chapter Ten: Head Towards Tomorrow

Chapter Ten: Head Towards Tomorrow

* * *

It burned everywhere. Sometimes Ruffnut seriously got tired of getting burned. And this time, it was definitely going to be bad. Worse than ever before.

_Doesn't matter._

She pushed through the pain. She couldn't depend on the nightmare to protect her from the fire this time. It was one thing to be sitting pretty inside its mouth while waiting out an inferno. This time, she couldn't hide out in there. Not when she needed to be flying the damn dragon. Ruffnut had an idiot boy and an idiot lizard to save.

Really, for as smart as the two prided themselves on being, they sure liked to indulge feats more reckless stupidity than even she tried to tackle. That made her snort. And Hiccup called her the reckless one of them.

Back to the task at hand.

Her objective: save Hiccup and Toothless. Not dying while doing so was preferable.

It would be awfully ungrateful to get herself killed when Hiccup had fought so hard to rescue her after all. Still, it wasn't going to be easy, as her growing burns were showing her. She'd known those two were in trouble the minute they broke free from the clouds with the Queen following them. Smoke was trailing from Toothless's tail, meaning the fin must have been set on fire. Once the fin was gone, they'd fall out of the sky. Hiccup could have short term memory loss concerning the first time they tried to fly, but Ruffnut surely didn't. If Toothless fell this time, there would be no lake to safely catch them. They'd either fall to their death or get snatched out of the sky by the Queen's jaws.

Neither option was acceptable. Ruffnut Thorston would not allow this to be the end of her best friends. Even if it killed her, she would see them through this.

Once again, not like dying was Plan A or anything. She just needed to make sure Plan A worked so they wouldn't need to fall back on anything else.

She took one last breath, wincing as it seared her throat a little on the way down, and sent the nightmare into an even steeper dive. They were now chasing the Queen and Toothless as the plummeted towards the ground. The nightmare was doing its best to steer clear from open flame and smoke, but there was only so much it could do to protect Ruffnut. Squinting her eyes so she could see more clearly through the smoke, Ruffnut tracked Hiccup and Toothless's maneuvers. Not far from the ground, Toothless threw out his wings like a parachute, causing the two of them to stop falling abruptly. Seeing that they looked like they were going to get themselves out, Ruffnut got ready to pull back.

However, the fin failed them right then and there as they tried to retreat. Immediately, Ruffnut was pushing the nightmare to move faster. It wasn't fast enough though. Hiccup was the best flier since he had the most experience, but his experience didn't help a bit when in a dangerous situation with a handicap. Their options and maneuverability were severely cut the minute the fin was lost. They tried desperately to avoid the huge mass of the dragon falling towards them but were blindsided by the tail. Ruffnut screamed as she watched them get hit. Hiccup went tumbling off of Toothless, and both dragon and rider began to fall into the inferno rushing up at them from the ground.

"Hiccup!" she yelled as she watched Toothless try to grab for the boy who, she noticed with growing panic, was unconscious.

She and the nightmare were so closed now. A couple more wing beats and they'd reach Toothless who seemed to almost have Hiccup.

"Come on, come on, we're almost there," she urged it on, "We're gonna save them. We have to."

A beat.

Another beat.

"Toothless!" she cried out to the dragon.

His eyes snapped open and he looked up at her, Hiccup cradled in his forelegs. He keened at her and looked down at Hiccup.

"Yeah, we're going to get him out of here Toothless," she yelled to him over the sound of the wind and the fire.

She took measure of the situation. They were dangerously close to hitting the ground at full tilt. There was no way Toothless could safely pull out of this on his own, especially trying to hold onto Hiccup. Ruffnut looked down at the dragon she was riding. The nightmare was big and strong. If it tried, it could lift Toothless out of this.

"Hey," she called to it, slapping at its neck to get its attention. Its dark pupils swiveled in its big yellow eyes to fix on her, "Hey. Do you think you could carry him," she pointed at Toothless, "With us?"

The nightmare looked at Toothless and then dove at him, knowing what Ruffnut wanted of it. They cleared the distance in a second and the dragon pulled up a bit so its lower body was level with the night fury. There was a jerk and then a sharp cry of something coming below, eliciting a wince from Ruffnut. She'd anticipated that trying to grab Toothless and Hiccup wouldn't be that easy. If ever there was a dragon not meant to safely carry things, it was the nightmare. Judging by the cry, which sounded distinctly dragon like in nature, Toothless was getting firsthand experience with how not safe those claws were.

"Sorry bud!" She called down to him in a way she hoped was comforting, "You gotta live with it for now! We're getting you and Hiccup out of here as fast as we can!"

She barely heard the answering whimper and steeled herself against it, knowing that there was nothing else she could do for Toothless except for let her own dragon do its job.

Her nightmare was working double time to lift them out of the smoke and flame. While Toothless was a fairly small dragon, he wasn't that small, being somewhat bulky despite his size. That and he was carrying another human. They had also just been in a long and drawn out battle. Ruffnut was surprised the nightmare wasn't dropping already from the exhaustion. Despite her concern and everything going against it, the nightmare was getting them out of there. It really made her wonder if all that vulnerability and fear it had shown on the boat ride to the island had been just her imagination. She was riding a creature of determination that would lift them from danger through sheer indomitable will.

Ruffnut hadn't even realized they'd cleared the fire until she felt the cool, moist winds coming from the ocean blow across her face and through her hair. She could've wept at how good it felt against her abused skin. A moment of weightlessness settled over her as the nightmare slowed its upward motion and started a lazy curving glide back towards land. Sagging bonelessly forward onto the nightmare, she let it take over driving.

With half lidded eyes, she watched as ant sized figures began to materialize on the shore in front of them. At the head of the pack was definitely Stoick, his vast form and glaringly bright red beard setting him apart from the rest. And then she saw Astrid and Tuffnut. And Phlegma and Gobber. Hel, she even saw Fishlegs and Snotlout and was actually glad about that fact, would wonders ever cease? Everyone seemed to have made it out alright.

Skimming low, the nightmare pulled up slightly so it hovered over the rocky shore before gently releasing Toothless from its claws. It flapped its enormous wings a couple of times to pull itself away and then set itself down a couple feet away. Ruffnut rushed a grateful rub along its neck and spines before throwing herself off its back and moving in Toothless's direction. Stoick was already there, holding Hiccup to his chest and trying to shake the boy awake. She would have dragged herself over to join him if not for the bodies that piled into her. It wasn't surprising to have half her face smothered by Tuffnut's messy blonde hair as he cried like a lost child into her shoulder. She always knew he was a bit of a baby, but he was her baby so she wouldn't tease him for being glad she was alive.

It was surprising, however, to find the Hofferson females, old and young both, were there too, rejoicing in seeing her well.

There really was no reneging on being nice to Astrid now, was there? Not now that she supposed they were kind of friends and comrades-in-arms.

Her eyes shuttered closed for a moment, soaking in the feeling of being held by people she cared about as she held them back. Tuffnut's smell didn't seem so offensive in that moment, just familiar. Astrid's grip on her was reassuring and genuine, still strange but no longer unwelcome. And Phlegma's arms encircled all of them, making Ruffnut's heart ache in the most pleasant way when she remembered the last time a woman held her and her brother to her chest had been a very long time ago.

Reality came back with the sting of her burns and the sharp reminder that she was forgetting something very important.

"Hiccup..." she rasped out, her voice much abused from breathing in smoke and blazing hot air during the battle.

Pheglma's arms released them a moment of longing gripped her but she fought it down. Tuffnut and Astrid each threw one of her arms over their shoulders and half carried her over to Hiccup and Stoick. Hiccup looked small and fragile in the large man's arms. Stoick's large form was curled around his son's, his entire body shaking with his sobs. Ruffnut felt her throat close up at the sight.

"Hiccup...?"

It couldn't be. The gods couldn't possibly have been cruel enough to see fit that she should live while Hiccup should die here and now. Not when his dream of seeing Vikings and dragons united in peace was right in his grasp. Not when she'd fought so hard to pull him out of the fire. She fought her way out of the arms holding her and practically crawled the rest of her way over to where Stoick and Hiccup were.

"Is he...?"

Stoick blinked, his eyes wet as he looked uncomprehendingly at her, before laughing.

"Don't worry your head, girl," he said after his bout of laughing was over and he noticed her disgruntled glare, "He lives. My son lives." His eyes softened as he stared at her. "It was thanks to you. You and your dragons."

"Oh thank the gods," Ruffnut wheezed out, "You scared me gods dammit. I thought he..."

"I did too." He sighed. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for..."

"It's okay." Relief mixed with exhaustion, further muddling her senses. Using what little energy and strength she had left, she reached forward and delicately and brushed some hair out of Hiccup's bloody, sooty face. "It's okay because he's alive."

"For the most part," Gobber chimed in over Stoick's shoulder, startling her, "You don't look so good either, lassie."

"I'm just tired," she muttered at him. She looked to Stoick again, "Are we making camp here for the night?"

"We'll have to," he answered, a bit confused by the question, "The ships were destroyed. We'll either have to wait for a rescue party to come get us-"

"Which is unlikely to happen, since the standing rule is that if the fleet is lost, they're considered a lost cause," Gobber interrupted, picking his teeth with the hook hand no one had seen him swap with his hammer one.

"-or try and build some new ships from whatever's left so we can try and sail home," Stoick continued, glaring at Gobber as he did so.

"It's good we're making camp for the night," Ruffnut said, bobbing her head vaguely, "I need a nap. And medical attention. But I want sleep more." She yawned. "But once I wake up, I have a better plan on how to get all of us off the island."

She ignored Stoick and Gobber's questions, flopping over to Toothless. Toothless, for his part, was very accommodating and didn't snap or huff at her at all for taking liberties with his personal space. He just used his foreleg to arrange her more comfortably against his stomach and proceeded to curl around her. If she had stayed awake a little longer, she would have caught him glaring balefully at anyone who tried to take her away from him. Or noticed them applying burn salves to her skin under the watchful eyes of the dragon. And if she had been less tired and more of a light sleeper, she would've woken up when Stoick brought back a bandaged Hiccup and laid him down with the girl and dragon.

* * *

The next day turned out to be busy from the moment her eyes opened to the moment they closed once more.

If she was the type for jumping at every little thing, and it had been anyone but Hiccup, Ruffnut would have probably screamed bloody murder at waking and finding herself pressed against him. Thankfully, all she submitted to was muted shock and horror before pushing herself away from both him and Toothless. Said dragon shifted irritably for a minute before settling again. When Hiccup didn't react to being disturbed, she took a chance to move in and checking him for injuries. Her stomach tried to empty itself when she reached his feet and then realized that it was only a foot.

Unable to look at it for much longer, she turned her attention back to Hiccup's face. A flash of guilt welled up when she thought about how if he had stayed back at the village and not come to save her, he could have avoided it. However, she was quick to cut that line of thinking off. Ruffnut knew that he had needed to come. Not just for her, but for his father and for the rest of the warriors. They had all needed a hero. Fighting back her tears, she chose to focus on things that were more important. They were alive. The door to the future had been flung wide open for them and now they had to focus crossing that threshold and bringing everyone else with them.

Unable to stop herself, Ruffnut indulged the warm squishy feeling now taking over her senses and leaned down to press a lightning quick kiss to Hiccup's freckled cheek. A moment later, she shook her head laughing at how she was acting. She got to her feet and with a last fleeting look at her best friends, ambled off. Ruffnut didn't really know what it was she was doing or looking for until she spotted a fire and several familiar figures sitting around it. Her eyes, like usual, were drawn to Stoick first, before working their way down the circle. Phlegma was at his side, and they were caught up in a heated discussion. Sitting at her other side was Astrid, who looked content just sitting there wit her mother. Then there was Spitlout, Snotlout's father, quietly listening to Stoick and Phlegma speak, only interjecting every now and then. Snotlout was the last person there, sitting on the other side of his father, with his elbow on his knee, his chin in hand and his eyes closed.

It made for an interesting scene. She could almost imagine Hiccup at Stoick's side if he'd been awake and well, completing the picture. Her father had always wanted to be a part of Stoick's most trusted inner circle, which had only extended to the man and woman sitting with him as well as Gobber. To be so trusted was an honor in their village, and it had rankled her father that though he was one of the village's best, he was never included. Ruffnut and Tuffnut had both learned to tune out his rants about the subject a long time ago.

She blinked in surprise when she realized they'd spotted her. What left her well and truly stunned was when both Phlegma and Stoick beckoned her over. Though nervous, she plastered on a grin and marched over with all of the confidence she didn't really have. Astrid smiled welcomingly at her and she felt for the first time in her life she could stand prolonged physical contact with the girl (that didn't involve violence) to give her a grateful hug. Instead, she went to claim the remaining seat. The one right between Snotlout and Stoick.

Great.

_That _was going to be comfortable.

The only saving grace was that Snotlout was out of it. She glanced back at Astrid, who shot her a sympathetic look, understanding her her problem instantly.

Seriously. Why had she ever not liked this girl?

"So whatcha guys need?" Ruffnut asked.

"You said you had a plan for getting off the island, girl," Stoick stated, his full attention focused on her, "We'd like to hear it."

"Plan?" Ruffnut echoed, racking her brain to remember when she'd said anything of the sort. It came to her after a couple of seconds. "Oh yeah, a plan on how to get away from this stupid rock. Yeah. I have one."

The adults stared her down as if the power of their combined gazes would get her lips flapping. Mentally, she rolled her eyes. They were plenty intimidating, but this really too fun.

"Stop being ridiculous Thorston," Astrid deadpanned, "Get _on _with it."

"Yeah yeah. Now, from your point of view, my plan is probably going to sound insane. And I get that I'm not exactly the most trustworthy source, considering my status as exile and supposed witch." Stoick looked like he wanted to interject, but she cut him off, not wanting to hear it. "You need to at least have an open mind. It's the fastest option we have, and no offense, but all the other plans would take forever to get us off this island. We have people who are hurt and need to be taken to the village healers as quickly as possible."

She shot a meaningful look at Stoick which got her a grim nod from the man. It was a dirty move, considering she knew that nothing got to Stoick more than Hiccup's well being. A little manipulation went a long way.

"So anyways. My plan. It's pretty simple despite being a little crazy." She smirked. "We're all going to ride dragons home."

"What?" Spitlout exclaimed.

Stoick and Phlegma were a little more reserved. Snotlout started; suddenly wide awake at the loud shout his father had made and glaring at him. Astrid looked thoroughly unsurprised.

"It's pretty easy," Ruffnut tried to explain, "Once you have a hang of it, of course. I've done it. Astrid and Snotlout have too."

The warrior girl nodded when the adults glanced at her. Snotlout followed suit, though the attention made him shrink some.

"You were right when you said your plan was insane, lass," Spitlout muttered, shaking his head, "How are we supposed to ride the damned things if the first thing that they do when they catch sight of one of us try to set us on fire?"

The Thorston girl frowned, staring at him very seriously.

"Before I answer, tell me something. If you saw a dragon, what's the first thing you'd do?" She grimaced. "Swing an axe, I bet?"

"Yes."

Her grimace grew more pronounced.

"Then why do you expect them to react any less violently? This is exactly what Hiccup and I have been talking about." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Stoick shift a little closer, seeming more attentive than he already was. "We're afraid. We think they're out to kill us, and they think we're out to kill them, and we all think that the only good way to solve anything is to kill first or get killed instead. It's like that's the thing we understand anymore. But it doesn't have to be like that. Hiccup and I think that there could be peace between our village and the dragons. The queen is dead and that means that the dragons on this island don't have to raid us to feed her anymore. This is our chance to end the war with the dragons and make them our friends instead of enemies. We just need to make the first move to prove to them that that's what we want." She paused, taking a breath. "I'm tired of fighting and losing people who matter to me. Aren't you guys tired of fighting too?"

If anyone outside of the village were to ask a member of the Hairy Hooligans that question, the response would've been a resounding "never!" They had a reputation of being fearsome, mighty warriors who never tired of battle only quit when they met their end on the battlefield. However, that was all it was. Reputation. In reality, no one liked being roused from their bed before the sun had even risen to the sound of screaming and the smell of their houses going up in smoke. Yet they had to put up with it anyway. The only good that came out of their reputation was that it made others wary of attacking them.

For Ruffnut and Hiccup, reputation had never really been good enough. It never was for people who lost things to the war with the dragons. Fathers, mothers, siblings, friends. There was a point where the phrase "they fell in battle, it was a good death" fell flat on the ears of loved ones. How was any death a good death? Ruffnut would've preferred never having to go through the experience of watching the boat holding her mother's body being put to sea. It was easy to forgive the dragons as well as admit to the mistakes of her own people for the sake of peace. Peace for children who would never have to grow up the way she did. In fear, and pain, and sadness.

Her audience had fallen into a long contemplative silence after her speech. They had a lot to think about. Sif help her, she'd had a lot to think about herself. She couldn't help but wish Hiccup had been there instead of her. He'd have been able to say all of it better. Maybe then they'd have been swayed more easily. Phlegma and Spitlout still looked conflicted, but at least they looked like they were actually thinking about what she'd said instead of dismissing it. Then there was Stoick. The chieftain, the father of her best friend, the man at her side, was quiet but he stared her down as if his eyes could tell her million different things. The intensity was unnerving but not unmanageable. Not willing to back down or seem cowardly, she met his gaze head on, practically daring him to break contact first.

And to her eternal surprise, he did.

Lifting his gaze once more, she found something new there. Determination. Not just in his eyes, but in the slant of his brows and set of his mouth. He'd decided then.

Ruffnut waited for him to tell them just what that decision was.

"We'll do it."

All of the air in her lungs left her in a large whoosh of a sigh. Both Astrid and Snotlout cheered at the verdict.

"You're sure Stoick?" Spitlout asked, his face still tense with uncertainty.

"Like it's been said many a time, the plan may be insane, but in both the short term and the long term for the village, it is the right thing to do. The lass was right about getting the wounded home as quickly as possible. More than that, she was right about our war." Stoick looked away, into the fire. "If there is a way we can stop the fighting, than we should do it. For the good of the village and our children, I am willing to forget the past to work towards a better future for all of us." He glanced at his counsel again. "I am sorry if either of you disagree with me. I will hear what you have to say, but you have to understand that my mind has been made on this matter and it isn't like to change."

Phlegma smiled as she put an arm around Astrid's shoulders and pulled her in close to her side.

"Don't worry about me. I trust you and I trust my daughter to make the right decision."

The chieftain looked to Spitlout whose expression betrayed lingering doubt.

"I'm not completely sold on this being friends with the dragons business," he announced gruffly, "I don't trust dragons."

"I know it's hard to believe dad," Snotlout said, drawing his father's attention to himself, "I was really scared about riding a dragon when Hiccup said we had to. It thought it was suicidal to just walk up to a dragon without anything to protect myself with and hope it would just let me ride it. But that's the thing. Once I showed the dragon that I didn't want to hurt it, it was really cool. The dragon I rode on really seemed to like me once I proved I meant it no harm. And when we had to fight that huge dragon, I trusted mine to keep me and Tuffnut safe." He stopped, frowning and appearing to be thinking very hard before nodding to himself. "I think I like dragons now more than I ever hated them. They're just... they're kind of cool."

Though Spitlout still seemed suspicious of the plan even after Snotlout's babble in the dragons's favor, he just shook his head and turned from Snotlout to Stoick.

"Do whatever you will."

That was probably as good as they were going to get. Ruffnut was certainly going to take it. Stoick looked bothered by Spitlout's abstained vote, but also realized that ultimately it meant his decision went unopposed. Nodding, as if to himself, he turned to Ruffnut.

"It's decided then. We'll ride the dragons."

She restrained her reaction to a grin when what she really wanted to do was whoop and jump up in down in joy. A foot in the door. That was all she needed to make Hiccup's dream a reality.

* * *

It turned out that the hardest part hadn't been getting the green light from Stoick. In retrospect, that had been the most obscenely easy part and she didn't understand how she ever thought it would be difficult. With Stoick and Phlegma already on her side, Spitlout indifferent and Gobber absent (though he would've probably voted her way too), whether it would have worked had never been in question. The hard part was everything else.

The majority of the warriors were of the same opinion as Spitlout had had during the meeting. They were leery about the safety of making nice with the dragons. Their concerns were rational ones too, because the dragons of the island were a bit wilder than the ones she and the others were accustomed to. One dragon had snapped at every brave soul who'd dared to try and approach it. Surprisingly, problems like that were solved when Toothless and the other dragons from home actually began assisting in dragon crowd control. The wild dragons responded better to being coaxed into cooperation by their own kind. With that half of the training resolved by the dragons, it was up to Ruffnut and the rest of the teens to cover the actual training.

Personally, Ruffnut worried more over Hiccup and Toothless. Hiccup didn't wake at all during the two days spent during training. She kept reminding herself that at least the steady rise and fall of his chest meant he was still in the land of the living. It helped a little. While the Hiccup situation was something she couldn't really do much about, it was the Toothless one that demanded a more immediate solution. Toothless was missing his fin and couldn't fly unaided even then. While her nightmare had been able to carry him for a time, she didn't think her nightmare would be able to carry the nightfury the entire time. With that idea thrown out, Ruffnut didn't know what to do.

Luckily, Gobber was more resourceful than she was. And he also had a good knack for repair. Hiccup had been his apprentice after all. He'd taken the burnt and broken remains of Toothless's saddle and fin and had set himself to work fixing them however he could with their limited resources. The results had been shoddy looking, but ultimately functional and met the standards needed for getting Toothless in the air. Once the fin was fixed, Ruffnut set herself to the task of learning how to fly with Toothless.

Ruffnut probably struggled just as much learning how to use the pedal and fin as the warriors did learning to fly for the first time.

She was pretty sure she'd created at least a dozen new curse words during the entire sorry affair.

And scandalized Phlegma the one time she'd come to give her some food rations.

Despite the trouble and the stress of the flying training, it all seemed to come together. She, her brother and friends taught the adults how to fly. In learning how to fly, they learned how to understand and work with the dragons. It wasn't an instant cure to many generations of animosity and feuding, but it certainly helped in their work towards breeding tolerance, if not trust, of the dragons. The dragons on the other hand accepted the arrangement more easily. Without the threat of the queen looming over their heads, they took to being treated like pets with little complaint.

She supposed that being pampered with food and affection beat out being bullied and eaten by huge monstrosity of dragon any day in their books.

* * *

Soon, the day arrived when she deemed an acceptable number of warriors competent enough to make the flight home. Everything had been carefully planned and arranged, down to who would take what dragon and passengers. Ruffnut had obviously gotten Toothless, and with little complaint from Stoick, had gotten to take Hiccup as her passenger. Stoick had obviously wanted to take his son, but she and Toothless had been aggressive in their demands to have him. Stoick had grudgingly allowed it with the slightest non-verbal threats of bodily harm if they didn't get Hiccup home safe and sound. As a sign of good faith, she assigned Stoick her trusty nightmare, who snorted and eyeballed the man distrustfully for a while before consenting to him.

When it came down to it, the moment of liftoff had been surreal.

There they all were, humans upon the backs of dragons, taking to the sky. If she looked ahead, it was just her, Hiccup and Toothless, staring down the sea they had to cross. When she looked behind, the entire fleet was behind her, following her every move. It was a little daunting, knowing that all of them, rider and dragon alike, were looking to her and Toothless as their guide. Somehow it hadn't sunk in until now that all this responsibility had been resting on her shoulders the entire time. Things could still go wrong and it would be her fault.

It was a little late to be worrying about that though. They were already airborne and set in their course. Stopping now would accomplish nothing if there was no good reason to other than her nerves. To soothe them just a bit, she reached between herself and Hiccup's body. Before they'd taken off, she'd tied a cord that secured Hiccup to her and then her to Toothless. Even if things got rough and one of them fell, they wouldn't be separated. She'd thought about how she'd almost lost her friends once and still shuddered at it. The feel of the cord there between them eased her mind a bit.

They'd been flying for more than half a day since they'd set out in the morning when finally she heard a groan loud enough to make out over the sound of the rushing wind.

She hooked her chin over her passenger's shoulder put her mouth to his ear.

"Hiccup?"

"Ruff?" she finally heard him moan back.

"Hey, you lazy bum," she murmured, "Way to sleep on the job while everyone had to clean up your mess."

"I've been sleeping?" he slurred out, "What about the battle? Did we win?"

"Yeah, we won." She chuckled. "You passed out right at the end there."

"Sorry about that..." he mumbled, making her chuckle again, "What's going on? Why's it so windy?"

"We're going home Hiccup." His head lolled a bit in an almost nod. "Hey, don't fall back asleep on me just yet. I have something to show you. Probably cooler than anything you've ever seen."

"What is it?"

Gently, she turned his head so he could peer over their shoulders behind them. All of their friends, family and kinsmen were there, riding upon dragons. She felt Hiccup's mouth fall open.

"How?" he asked her, his awe unmistakable.

"I'll tell you later. For now, just enjoy the view."

She returned her own attention to steering, keeping an ear out for anything Hiccup had to say. He was silent for a long time. Just when she thought he'd really fallen back asleep, he spoke.

"That's got to be the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen," he whispered, a yawn slipping into his quiet words.

"It's kind of nice, ain't it?"

He didn't answer. Ruffnut didn't expect him to. She just smiled and hugged him a little closer. Toothless however did, rumbling agreeably even if he couldn't actually see it. It caused an amused sigh to slip past her lips and she ran a hand down the scales of his neck.

"Yeah. It really is."

* * *

**Chapter Ten: Head Towards Tomorrow** - End

* * *

AN: Oh man. I want to cry. This is the last chapter of Angels of the Silences. There's still the epilogue, but omigod. There's a reason I've been taking so long with this chapter. And RL was only half of it. Those of you who have been around for so long and those of you new to the story even now, I love you all. This story has been nearer and dearer to me than any other story I've written and will be the first multichaptered story I have ever finished. Thank you for being there for me and being so kind and encouraging as I shared this with you all.

Before I post this, fun thing I puzzled out while writing: The sun sets in the west. If we think about the location of Berk from the movie's map, it lies east across the sea from the Dragon's Nest. So when the warriors and dragons are flying home, they are flying eastward. When Ruffnut turns Hiccups head, she turns it so he is looking at the sun setting in the west behind them.

* * *

Next Installment: 

Epilogue: Waiting for You


	12. Epilogue: Waiting for You

Epilogue: Waiting For You

* * *

There were worse wake up calls than having a dragon slobbering all over one's face. Other people would probably argue that point with Hiccup. Or call him sick or insane. However this was Toothless. The ridiculous reptile hovered over his face, snuffing and whining and nudging him with his snout. Basically making a nuisance of himself. Hiccup smiled, or tried to since all the muscles in his body, even the ones in his lips, seemed to be protesting even the simplest of motions.

He'd been having the nicest dream before he'd been woken up. Toothless had been there. And Ruff. And they'd been flying. And there had been other dragons flying with them. They'd all had riders. Viking riders. And the sunset! That had been amazing. It had all seemed so real too. Too bad. He and Ruff must have fallen asleep out at Terror Island while watching the sunset again.

His arm wobbling, he lifted his hand to pet his insistent dragon.

"Hey Toothless," he rasped out, "I'm happy to see you too."

And he was. That was, until Toothless got a little too close put a foot in his tender midsection.

"Augh!" He wheezed as all the air was forced out of his chest.

One good shove managed to get the dragon off his stomach. He curled up protectively around his midsection and tried to catch his breath. Slowly, he peeled his tightly shut eyes open, trying to locate the dragon so he could properly fend him off if he struck again. He blinked. And then he blinked again.

"What... uh..." He goggled at his surroundings, which were familiar for the wrong reasons. "I'm in my house."

Even though he said it, he couldn't actually believe it. Just because his bed posts had the right carvings, slightly lopsided liked they'd always been, didn't mean it was actually his bed in his house. Just because the wardrobe and the fire pit and the staircase all looking like the ones in his house didn't mean that this was his house. Except with every new detail he took in, he realized that it kind of had to be his house. The only glaringly obvious thing that didn't belong in his house was well...

Staring him down with those big green globes and making "play with me!" noises at him like they were at the gorge and they could just run around all day.

"You're in my house."

And boy, did that pull a panic lever somewhere in the back of his head. He didn't have time to act on it before Toothless decided to start the running around without him. His addled brain soon saw fit to take pity on him and filter in some semi-useful memories, like how he and Toothless and the rest of the Vikings had fought the queen dragon. From there, he was able to come to the conclusion that things probably went well-ish if he was home. Hiccup was pretty sure that if they'd lost the battle, there wouldn't have been a home to come back to. Even if things were probably okay on that front, there was still the energetic dragon wrecking his house and frolicking amongst the rafters.

Sighing, he resigned himself to reining the dragon in before he killed any furniture.

"Toothless, no. No, Toothless," he tried to scold firmly, even though he knew it was a lost cause on the willful dragon, "Toothless! Oh, come on."

He really needed to have a talk with Ruffnut about how spoiling him so much was not helping teach Toothless how to behave like a civilized dragon.

Toothless continued to ignore him from his perch up in the rafters, drawing another sigh out of the boy. He really had to get up and get him down from there, didn't he? As he moved to lever himself out of bed, a wave of wrongness rushed over him. It took a moment to think on why it felt wrong before he suddenly _just knew_. He sunk back into his bed a bit, steeled his nerve, grasped the blanket in his right hand, and pulled it away from the bottom half of his body.

Knowing was one thing.

Seeing was another.

In the corner of his eye, he noticed that Toothless had come down from the rafters and was sat down on his haunches and watching him with anticipation. Hiccup was grateful for the moment's reprieve he was being given. He didn't feel in the mood for playing right now. He wasn't even sure he could play at all anymore, considering the way he was now.

What was he supposed to do about this?

As he looked at his leg and then over at Toothless, the answer was pretty simple.

Carefully, he swung both legs over the side of the bed. He, very deliberately, grabbed one boot and pulled in onto his foot. Once he was done doing that, he put his booted foot down. Then, carefully, he let the other leg come down and the metal contraption that had taken the place of his other foot touch the ground. That wasn't the hard part, even if the lack of the sensation of two feet beneath him was jarring. Even trying to stand wasn't too bad. If he leant against the bedpost and put all of his weight on his right foot, it felt he'd just lifted one leg and was trying to balance on the other. It was the first step, followed by the second, that his resolve to work through it almost crumbled entirely.

The first baby step lulled him into security. Made him think he could do it. It was awkward and he held his breath through it, but he thought, maybe I can do this. And then he took another step and over extended.

His leg slid out from under him.

He was braced for impact with the ground but not for the crashing sense of failure he was sure he'd feel.

Neither came, however. He found himself being held up and supported by a large mottled black head. It pushed him up and back so that he was standing again. Quietly, he thanked Toothless. The dragon responded by plodding along at his side, letting Hiccup use him as a crutch to hobble over to the door.

Right then and there, Hiccup had never loved his scaly best friend more.

They'd just made it to the door with his fingers brushing the handle when the door pushed in all on its own, making them both backpedal to avoid getting hit by it. He squinted, his eyes not ready for the flood of light pouring in through the frame.

"You're up!" he heard someone say before he found himself being hefted off his feet and squeezed.

"Wha-?"

"You idiot! Who exactly gave you permission to go and almost die like that, huh?"

"But-"

"Ugh. Try to think next time, that's what you're supposed to be good at. Seriously! No dying, okay? Or else Toothless will cry and your dad'll get mad at me and then I'll have to storm Helheim to rescue you!"

There was a sudden flash of heat across his ear, the smell of lightning on the air, and then a yelp.

"Okay fine! You probably wouldn't cry, but you'd be really, really sad, don't even try to pretend you wouldn't be!"

With surprising gentleness despite the roughness of the initial grab, he was eventually lowered back to the ground and released. Before he could do anything, Toothless was under his arm again, the door was shut and he was being herded back to his bed. Even though he'd wanted to get up and out of the house and try to walk this thing off, he didn't mind postponing that bit. Especially since the person he'd been dead set on finding had come to him instead.

"Ruff?" he asked as the girl and dragon both shoved him back into bed.

"What is it Haddock?" she grumped at him, leaving him to Toothless as she sat on one of the chairs near the fire pit and started scooping whatever was in the pot hanging over it into several bowls.

"What happened?"

For a while, she stayed silent, focusing on her self-imposed task. Hiccup thought maybe she was trying to ignore his question when she shoved a bowl at him, set another in front of Toothless, and then sat at the foot of his bed dipping her spoon distractedly into her own bowl. However, he knew her face. This wasn't the guilty avoidance face. He wasn't entirely sure what this expression was, but he could wait on her to speak, because he knew she would eventually. Ruffnut was not always forthcoming, but with him, she wouldn't lie and she wouldn't hold back. His patience was rewarded with she opened her mouth a minute later.

"Your suicidal stunt worked. The queen bit the dust." He nodded, already having guessed as much. "You and Toothless tried to clear her tail as she fell, but you couldn't. Jorg and I barely managed to catch you guys, and even then..." she trailed off.

"Jorg?" he asked, his brows scrunching together.

"The nightmare," she provided for him. He nodded, understanding. She was quiet a moment longer before picking up again, "We didn't get to you on time. Hitting the tail crushed your foot and then there was the fire and well, you know, fire bad..." she tried to give him one of her trademark grins but came out as more of a grimace to him, "The elder did what she could for you, and when there wasn't anything else she could do, Gobber took over."

"Yeah," he acknowledged, recognizing the work.

His attention was drawn back to her.

He looked her over with a critical eye, noting the bandages that started on her neck and wrists and disappeared into the collar and sleeve of her shirt. However, there were things she hadn't been able to hide under bandages. Her face was a mottled assortment of bright pink and red splotches of skin with the occasional scab or two dotting her forehead or a cheek. Burns. Fire very bad. The most surprising thing however, had been her hair and her distinct lack of it. Without realizing it, he'd already reached up brush his fingers against the wild loose ends, trying to convince himself it was now really that short and she wasn't hiding the rest of it as a practical joke.

"Hey, stop that!" She scowled, swatting at his hand. Her already burn red face turned a little redder. "It's already messy enough as is."

"So you're saying that it's okay for you to molest my hair but I can't do it back?" he teased, unable to resist.

"Yes. That's cause I like your hair all messy and wind swept. It looks good that way." Her scowl grew more pronounced. "Unlike mine. I mean look at it! How does my hair even make sense?"

It didn't really, he had to admit that. Gone were her three long trademark braids. All that was left was her two small braids on either side of her face. The rest was a short choppy mess that stuck up in all directions in the back looking like the wrong end of a duck. It made for a very strange look on her, but he didn't dislike it.

"Stop worrying about it so much, you're going to give yourself wrinkles scowling like that," he joked, earning himself a glare.

Conversation lapsed for a bit after that as they stopped to eat the food Ruffnut had served them before it got any colder. It was fish porridge if Hiccup tasted right. That must've been why Toothless had finished his first serving so quickly and was already on his second. He hadn't even realized he was hungry, starving, until he'd really thought about the food he'd been handed.

"You're taking this better than I thought," Ruffnut said suddenly as he was preparing to eat another spoonful.

"You think so?" he asked skeptically.

"Yeah. I kind of expected you to be really depressed. Since you're kind of the broody, sensitive type." This time, he was glaring at her. "Don't give me that, you know it's true. But, I mean, I would've understood, do understand, about you not being okay about losing your foot." She swallowed loudly, glancing briefly at his leg with the prosthesis where his foot should've been. "As your friend, Hiccup, it's my duty to tell you when you're an idiot, save you when you've gotten your idiot self in trouble, and help you when you're not okay."

He was not going to cry. Odin help him, he was not going to cry.

"I... I'm going to be alright, eventually Ruff," he finally choked out, "I'm not okay, but it could've been worse. I'm just really glad that I'm alive, and you and Toothless are alive, and that we won. And besides, Toothless can fly without his fin. I'm sure learning how to walk without my foot's going to be a cakewalk in comparison."

Ruffnut beamed at him.

"That's the spirit," she cheered.

* * *

They stayed in his house a while longer, Ruffnut filling him in on what had happened since he'd been asleep. It sounded too good to be true, how she told it. The warriors had flown home on dragons? And his father had not only advocated that plan, but had also encouraged integrating dragons into the village? Had lifted her banishment and had put her on his council as dragon liaison? It went against everything his father had lived by. He couldn't reconcile the father she was talking about and the one who had taken her from him. By the end of it, he was restless with the need to go outside and see it for himself.

Ruffnut and Toothless helped him get up and get out and it was like he'd stepped into another world. Seeing so many dragons in the village had him panicking his way through several raid flashbacks before reminding himself that it was daylight and they weren't attacking.

He found himself getting mobbed a second later by his father, friends and everyone else in the village. It was overwhelming, to say the least. And he was more than a little relieved when Gobber just handed him his new riding gear with a grin and pushed him towards Ruffnut and Toothless, who had been joined by her nightmare. Hiccup almost had another close call with crying when he saw that everything had been made special to accommodate his leg.

With a small amount of difficulty, he climbed onto Toothless's back. Ruffnut and Jorg were ready and Ruffnut was bouncing impatiently in her saddle, drumming her hands on her dragon's horns.

"Ready?" she called out to him.

"Yeah."

Without any signal, she took off, making him and Toothless scramble to catch up.

"First to get to Terror Island gets to pick what we do on our first date!" Ruffnut yelled over her shoulder, her accompanying smirk utterly diabolical.

Hiccup almost crashed himself and Toothless into the side of a house.

"Did you- did you just ask me out?" he squawked.

"Yeah, so what?"

"That's a horrible way to ask someone out!" he complained.

"Like you could do better!" she teased him, before turning in her saddle and tugging an eyelid down with a finger. "Bet you I'm going to beat you there!"

Breathless laughter spilled out of him at that. When she put it that way...

"No way!" He ducked his head and smiled a private smile to himself as he urged Toothless to go faster. "Not if I beat you there first!"

And truth be told, even if he got there last, he still won.

* * *

**Epilogue: Waiting for You** - End

**Angels of the Silences** - End

* * *

AN:

_Well, I will not be the enemy of anything  
I'll only stand here  
Waiting for you_

_-_Angels of the Silences, Counting Crows

Gross sobbing.

Angels is over. There might be a one-shot (or two-shot) Astrid and Tuffnut. I think this story helped me grow appreciation for Astrid. She reminds me (fanon) Natasha Romanoff (aka Avengers Black Widow). Is it sad that I see Hiccup and Ruffnut as Jane and Thor? (PS the arrangement of names is intentional.) Thank you all again. I loved writing this and you all made it better for me.

(And because I can't help it, Toothless kisses to anyone who figures out where the name of the nightmare came from.)


End file.
